Pairaudeau, who will report to Exscientia CEO, Professor Andrew Hopkins, brings over 25 years’ experience in the drug hunting and technology leadership space.
In his new role, Pairaudeau will overlook the aim to increase drug discovery efficiency beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to joining Exscientia, Pairaudeau was vice-president of hit discovery at AstraZeneca and chair of the Global Chemistry Leaders Network, where he was responsible for implementing strategic initiatives and collaborations.
At AstraZeneca, he leveraged AI, machine learning and physics based computational methods, which led to the company’s ‘Augmented Drug Design’ programme, as well as the launch of an automation facility in Gothenburg, dedicated to synthesis and integrated screening.
The appointment of Pairaudeau as CTO means that Exscientia’s leadership team now has experience of discovering a total of three marketed drugs, with the new hire previously being part of the team that discovered the cardiovascular drug, Brilinta® (ticagrelor).
The biggest senior technology hires in 2020
“It is exciting to be joining a company whose committed mission is to use AI and automation to revolutionise drug discovery at a global scale,” said new Exscientia CTO Pairaudeau.
“Exscientia’s existing achievements, successfully applying innovative computational approaches to drug discovery speak for themselves, so I am thrilled to be joining this talented team, and I’m looking forward to the challenges that the new year brings.”
“Garry has forged a long-standing impressive career that has combined real-life drug hunting with cutting edge Computational and AI techniques as well as robotics”, said Exscientia CEO Hopkins.
“Garry has the rarest of talents of both a deep understanding of the problems of drug discovery, and a drive to lead the development of new AI and automation approaches to solve those problems.
“We are delighted that he has joined us to help accelerate our mission to apply effective AI and automation to revolutionise drug discovery.”
