What is Exscalate

Overcoming the challenges of drug discovery

Drug discovery is complex. Progressing from biological targets to finding candidates for clinical trials is a costly, time consuming and risky process. This hinders innovation as scientists and researchers cannot easily and quickly test their hypotheses for potential drugs. As a result, effective candidates often don’t even make it past the preclinical phase. 

The Challenges of drug discovery

Slow/time consuming

More than 13 years for a new drug to progress to preclinical trials

Risky

less than 10% of clinical trials are successful

90% failure rate of new molecular entities and only 1 out of 5,000 drugs makes it to market.

Costly

On average it costs $1-2 billion for each new drug to be approved for clinical use.

How platform works

Harnessing technology to accelerate drug discovery

Our relentless pursuit in identifying and designing new therapeutic candidates for diseases with unmet patient needs has pushed us to harness the power of bioinformatics in accelerating the drug discovery process. 

The result is Exscalate, a structure-based virtual screening platform developed in-house and designed to accelerate lead discovery and lead optimization.

Advantages of Exscalate

faster target validation

faster compound screening

faster lead validation

When compared to traditional drug discovery timelines.

In 2020, Exscalate rapidly identified a lead compound for a new target in a dry eye indication, enabling a Harvard Medical School, Boston, spin-off, Aramis Biosciences, to go from zero to phase 2 investigational new drug (IND) approval of a new molecular entity (NME) in only 14 months. Read More

Complexity

Exscalate embraces complexity

Exscalate leverages advanced technologies such as AI, a vast chemical library together with the power of exascale supercomputing to effectively tackle the complexities of the drug discovery process.

Drawing on our vast in-house expertise, we understand the physiology of the target and what role it plays in a specific pathology. Our platform not only boosts preclinical and clinical candidate selection but also supports new drug design and drug repurposing strategies. 

Screening

Extreme-scale virtual screening 

Starting with a biological target, in silico simulations rapidly evaluate the chemical interactions between molecules and biological targets.

With the use of supercomputing and a chemical library of 500 billion molecules, Exscalate has the capability to evaluate up to 30 biological targets simultaneously, with a processing capacity of more than three million molecules a second. 

See the paper here

Artifical Intelligence

AI meets Exascale computing

The Exscalate platform is continuously learning. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities rapidly validate the simulated hypotheses and predict potential future failures. 

Exscalate Advantages

Key advantages of Exscalate’s accelerated drug discovery platform

Extreme precision

The speed at which complex interactions can be evaluated simultaneously in-silico allows for a platform that offers the highest quality and precision to ensure clinical success.

Advancing polypharmacology predictions

Complex diseases require complex therapeutic approaches. Exascale in-silico screening paves the way towards a new polypharmacological approach in which more effective drugs can be developed through modulating multiple targets.

Failing fast and adapt

Drug discovery traditionally entails substantial human effort only for it to end in failure during the clinical phase. The Exscalate platform anticipates failure far earlier in the process.

Allosteric approach

Unlike orthosteric modulation, which can lead to side effects, Exscalate modulates targets through an allosteric approach. This reduces side effects as it doesn’t block the receptor completely and enables the platform to attack “undruggable” targets.

Open to the scientific community

More than a platform, Exscalate is an open, barrier-less environment. It’s an environment that fosters collaboration with academic institutions, industry players and startups to deliver breakthrough science. Together we’ll create molecules of the future to cure disease.