BenevolentAI appoints Dr John Orloff to its Board of Directors

LONDON, Sept. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BenevolentAI has deepened the drug discovery and development expertise on its Board with the appointment of Dr John Orloff as a Non-Executive Director. Dr Orloff joins the BenevolentAI Board as it advances plans to scale its AI platform, partnerships and drug portfolio.

"Technological advances have created a new category of companies that have dramatically changed the way we approach drug discovery research, introducing previously impossible speed, accuracy and scale to the process." Dr Orloff commented, "BenevolentAI is a rare company in this emerging sector, in that they  have demonstrated in silico, in vitro and clinical validation of their technology, and I believe its unique approach will change how the entire industry discovers and develops drugs."

As a global R&D and business leader with 25 years of experience in the biopharma industry, Dr Orloff will bring invaluable expertise across research, drug discovery, clinical development, medical affairs, health economics, and regulatory affairs to BenevolentAI's experienced Board of Directors. He joins Benevolent from Alexion, where he served as Executive Vice President and Global Head of R&D and, over three years, led the expansion of the development pipeline from 3 to 30 programs, spanning over 80 clinical trials from Phase 1 to Phase 4 . Previously, he was Global Head of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Baxalta, followed by the roles of Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at Novelion. He also held executive R&D roles at Merck Serono and Novartis.

Dr Francios Nader, Chairman of BenevolentAI, commented; "Dr John Orloff adds invaluable scientific leadership expertise in preclinical research and clinical development to BenevolentAI's Board, and will be a guiding force as the company continues to drive innovation and uncover new treatments with a higher likelihood of clinical success."

Joanna Shields, CEO and Board Director of BenevolentAI, commented, "As the Benevolent platform scales and we accelerate the development of our internal pipeline of novel drugs, Dr. John Orloff brings an impressive track record in R&D and commercialisation to our Board and we warmly welcome John to the team."

Dr Orloff received his A.B. from Dartmouth College and earned his MD from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, completing his medical training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Yale University School of Medicine.

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About BenevolentAI

BenevolentAI combines advanced AI and machine learning with cutting edge science to decipher complex disease biology, generate novel insights and discover more effective medicines. Our unique computational R&D platform spans every step of the drug discovery process, powering an in-house pipeline of 25+ drug programmes from early discovery towards clinical phases. With several successful collaborations with leading pharmaceutical organisations, we are also the only AI-drug discovery company with a clinically validated approach, discovering a leading repurposed drug candidate for COVID-19. BenevolentAI is headquartered in London with a research facility in Cambridge (UK) and a further office in New York, with a team of over 300 world-leading scientists and technologists progressing its mission to reinvent drug discovery and advance life-changing drugs through to the clinic.

SOURCE BenevolentAI