Exscientia Appoints Alex Snow, Founder of Oxford Innovation Sciences and Former CEO of Lansdowne Partners, as Deputy Chairman

OXFORD, England and DUNDEE, Scotland, December 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Exscientia, the innovative company at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Alex Snow to its Board of Directors as Deputy Chairman. He brings significant strategic development and financial experience to the board.

Alex is an experienced investor, banker and entrepreneur, having previously founded Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) and raised more than £600 million to commercialise world-leading science originating at Oxford University.

Prior to OSI, Alex spent 20 years in investment banking and fund management, most recently as CEO of the hedge fund Lansdowne Partners. He was also the founder and CEO of Evolution Group, a UK investment banking and securities firm, which was sold to Investec Bank for £232 million in 2011.

Alex is a former professional rugby player with Harlequins and England and was educated at Harrow School and St Andrew's University.

Andrew Hopkins, Chairman and CEO of Exscientia, said: "We are delighted to welcome Alex to Exscientia. Alex brings deep investor knowledge and unique entrepreneurial skills to the Board. He has a passion for translating-cutting edge science into long-term, tangible value. The deep and active commitment Alex has shown to the Company and the energy he brings to the role of Deputy Chairman will bring immense value. We are confident that his extensive experience in the investment community and wide networks will be invaluable in supporting the Company's strategy for growth. We have made great progress in 2017, having announced collaborations with GSK, Sanofi and a significant investment from Evotec; with Alex joining us, we look forward to an exciting year in 2018."

Alex Snow added: "Exscientia is a truly exciting company with the potential to be a game-changer in the pharma industry, as a tech company that discovers drugs. There is growing realisation of the disruptive potential of AI in pharma, and Exscientia is leading the field. With the successes so far achieved, we are beginning to see exciting evidence of acceleration of the discovery of new medicines through application of its unique AI platform. The Company has signed some impressive deals to date and is poised to move to the next phase of its development. I am very much looking forward to making my contribution to building a great company."

A photo of Alex Snow is available on request by emailing: [email protected]

About Exscientia 

Exscientia is at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery and design. By fusing the power of AI with the discovery experience of seasoned drug hunters, Exscientia is the first company to automate drug design, surpassing conventional approaches.

Exscientia's innovative platform enables breakthrough productivity gains as well as new approaches to improve drug efficacy. Novel compounds prioritised for synthesis by its AI systems simultaneously balance potency, selectivity and pharmacokinetic criteria in order to deliver successful experimental outcomes.

By applying a rapid design-make-test cycle, the Exscientia AI platform actively learns from the preceding experimental results and rapidly evolves compounds towards the desired candidate criteria.

Exscientia systems learn from both existing data resources and experimental data from each design cycle. The principle is similar to how a human would learn, but the AI process is far more effective at identifying and assimilating multiple subtle and complex trends to balance potency, selectivity and pharmacokinetic criteria.

As a result, the AI-driven process is more likely to achieve the end goal and to do this more rapidly and efficiently than traditional human endeavour.

Exscientia is collaborating with several leading pharmaceutical companies. In addition to Evotec, partners include Sanofi (metabolic disease), Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals (CNS) and GSK.

Exscientia has offices in Oxford and Dundee, UK.

For more information visit www.exscientia.co.uk or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/exscientialtd

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SOURCE Exscientia