WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced on Friday that BioXcel Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has been named “Innovator of the Month.” The company employs 25 people at their headquarters in New Haven and utilizes a unique artificial intelligence (AI) that draws from machine learning and big data analytics along with expertise and intuition of human experience in drug development. 

“BioXcel Therapeutics is at the cutting edge of fusing human knowledge with AI to change lives of the patients using their therapies. I’m proud that they’ve chosen Connecticut as their home to conduct drug discovery research and look forward to watching them continue to grow in our state and the field of AI and medicine,” said Murphy

Vimal Mehta, CEO and Founder of BioXcel Therapeutics said, “We believe the combination of our expertise and our ability to generate therapeutic candidates in neuroscience and immuno-oncology is unique to Connecticut and the pharmaceutical industry. New Haven has been the perfect location for BioXcel to recruit world-class talent, access biotech investors and partners and easily travel within the region. We look forward to continuing to grow in Connecticut.”  

BioXcel’s unique drug re-innovation approach utilizes the AI platform to look at existing drugs that may be generic, may be in a phase 2 program or may have failed phase 2 program to see how a particular drug may be redirected for a different or improved use. This approach has the potential to reduce the expense and time associated with drug development in diseases with substantial unmet medical needs. 

Murphy believes entrepreneurship and innovation are the building blocks for a strong economy. In the U.S. Senate, he has introduced two bipartisan pieces of legislation to incentivize angel investors to put more money into startup companies – the Angel Tax Credit Act and the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups (HALOS) Act. Startup companies create an average of 2 million jobs each year. 

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