The UK artificial intelligence company Exscientia Ltd has expanded its drug discovery resource with the acquisition of Kinetic Discovery Ltd, a protein engineering specialist. The transaction follows Exscientia’s expansion in Oxford where it is bringing computer scientists, drug designers and biologists under one roof to work on algorithm development for drug discovery. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing a waiver to the legal requirement on pharma companies to obtain informed patient consent for certain low-risk clinical trials. The proposal would amend a provision of the 21^st Century Cures Act to add an exception to the consent requirement.