Pharma sector doubles down on AI to slash costs, timelines

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to accelerate research and development, betting on new modeling tools and automated labs to improve efficiency across their pipelines. Industry forecasts suggest that the use of machine learning to optimize target discovery, design molecules and streamline clinical trial planning could halve early-stage development timelines and costs within the next three to five years. | Deal announcement | Partners | Deal size (as reported) | Primary objective | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Jan 7, 2025 | PostEra × Pfizer PFE.N | $610 mln potential; incl. $12 mln upfront | Expand Pfizer–PostEra AI Lab and add ADC payload-design program | | Jan 13, 2025 | IQVIA IQV.N × NVIDIA NVDA.O | Undisclosed | Build custom AI models/agents to automate R&D-commercial workflows | | Feb 20, 2025 | Incyte INCY.O × Genesis Therapeutics | $30 mln upfront; up to $295 mln/target milestones + royalties | Use GEMS platform to design small molecules for Incyte targets | | Mar 3, 2025 | Kyndryl KD.N × Microsoft MSFT.O | Undisclosed | Deploy Dragon Copilot to reduce documentation burden | | Mar 18, 2025 | GE HealthCare GEHC.O × NVIDIA | Undisclosed | Develop autonomous X-ray and ultrasound workflows | | Mar 25, 2025 | Cleveland Clinic × G42 | Undisclosed | Form task force to accelerate AI use in care and operations | | Apr 16, 2025 | Kenvue KVUE.N × Microsoft | Undisclosed (5-yr) | Modernize operations using Azure, genAI, and digital twins | | Apr 29, 2025 | Eli Lilly LLY.N × Creyon Bio | $13 mln upfront; >$1 bln milestones | Use AI engine to design improved RNA-targeted oligos | | May 21, 2025 | Genentech (Roche) ROG.S × Orionis Biosciences | $105 mln upfront; >$2 bln milestones + royalties | Discover monovalent molecular glues using Allo-Glue platform | | Jun 11, 2025 | Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO × NVIDIA × DCAI (Gefion) | Undisclosed | Build bespoke AI models using Gefion supercomputer | | Jun 13, 2025 | AstraZeneca AZN.L × CSPC Pharmaceutical 1093.HK | $110 mln upfront; up to $1.62 bln dev milestones; up to $3.6 bln sales milestones | Discover oral drug candidates; AZ holds global licensing rights | | Jun 29-30, 2025 | Pfizer × XtalPi 2228.HK | Undisclosed | Expand to next-gen physics + AI modelling platform | | Jul 2, 2025 | AstraZeneca × Modella AI | Undisclosed (multi-year) | Use multimodal AI models to speed oncology development | | Aug 14, 2025 | Eli Lilly × Superluminal Medicines | Up to $1.3 bln + royalties | Apply AI GPCR platform to undisclosed targets | | Sep 1, 2025 | University of Oxford × Ellison Institute | £118 mln funding | Use AI + challenge models to map correlates of immunity | | Sep 23, 2025 | Merck KGaA MRCG.DE × Siemens SIEGn.DE | Undisclosed (MoU) | Connect R&D and manufacturing through Siemens digital platforms | | Oct 14, 2025 | Takeda 4502.T × Nabla Bio | Double-digit millions upfront + >$1 bln milestones | Use JAM AI model to design antibodies and multispecifics | | Oct 26-27, 2025 | Novartis NOVN.S × Avidity Biosciences RNA.O | ~$12 bln cash | Acquire Avidity to strengthen xRNA and neuromuscular portfolio | | Oct 28, 2025 | Eli Lilly × NVIDIA | Undisclosed (>1,000 GPUs) | Build large-scale AI supercomputer for R&D | | Oct 28, 2025 | Johnson & Johnson MedTech JNJ.N × NVIDIA | Undisclosed | Use Isaac + Omniverse to simulate OR workflows | | Nov 10, 2025 | Eli Lilly × Insilico Medicine | >$100 mln potential + royalties | Use Pharma.AI to design small-molecule candidates | | Nov 20, 2025 | Merck KGaA × Valo Health | Over $3 bln potential | Use Valo’s human-data AI to identify targets and speed preclinical work | | Dec 9, 2025 | Novartis × Relation Therapeutics | $55 mln upfront + up to $1.7 bln milestones | Use AI + multi-omics to find first-in-class targets | | Jan 7, 2026 | GSK GSK.L × Helix | Undisclosed | Provide GSK exome + longitudinal data for target discovery | | Jan 8, 2026 | GSK × Noetik | $50 mln upfront + near-term milestones | License AI virtual-cell models for cancer research | | Jan 8, 2026 | Pfizer × Boltz | Undisclosed | Fine-tune Boltz AI models with Pfizer data | | Jan 9, 2026 | Schrodinger SDGR.O × Eli Lilly | Undisclosed | Integrate TuneLab models into LiveDesign | | Jan 12, 2026 | NVIDIA × Thermo Fisher TMO.N | Undisclosed | Pair NVIDIA AI with lab instruments for automation | | Jan 12, 2026 | NVIDIA × Eli Lilly | Up to $1 bln over 5 years | Create closed-loop AI + robotics discovery lab | | Jan 13, 2026 | Illumina ILMN.O × AstraZeneca × Merck MRK.N × Eli Lilly | Undisclosed | Launch Billion Cell Atlas for large-scale AI training | | Jan 13, 2026 | AstraZeneca acquires Modella AI | Undisclosed | Acquire Modella to deploy foundation models across oncology R&D | | Apr 14, 2026 | Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO × OpenAI | Undisclosed | Deploy AI across the business, from drug discovery to manufacturing and commercial operations | | Apr 14, 2026 | Labcorp LH.N x Amazon Web Services x Datavant | Undisclosed | New AI-powered real-world data platform to help researchers and biopharmaceutical companies analyze Alzheimer’s disease-related data faster | | Apr 14, 2026 | Vasa Therapeutics x Eli Lilly | Undisclosed | Enable Vasa to use Lilly TuneLab, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform trained on Lilly's proprietary data | | Apr 22, 2026 | Merck x Alphabet's Google Cloud | $1 billion | Build AI capabilities, investing as much as $1 billion over a number of years to fund AI infrastructure, engineers and licensing of Gemini Enterprise | | Apr 28, 2026 | Profluent x Eli Lilly | Upfront payment + up to $2.25 billion in development, commercial milestone payments and royalties | Research collaboration to develop and commercialize custom site-specific recombinases for diseases with severe unmet needs | | May 6, 2026 | Simulations Plus SLP.O x NVIDIA | Undisclosed | Technical collaboration focused on GPU-accelerated simulation and AI-assisted workflows for computationally intensive modeling applications within drug development | | May 7, 2026 | Roche x PathAI | $750 million upfront + up to $300 million in milestones | Acquisition strengthens Roche's position in digital pathology and helps transform manual workflows into fully automated, AI-driven processes | | May 13, 2026 | Owkin x AstraZeneca | Undisclosed | Build biopharma agents as part of a three-year licensing of K Pro, Owkin’s AI Scientist for biopharma decision making | | May 13, 2026 | IQVIA x Kexing Biopharm 688136.SS | Undisclosed | Support a global, multi-product biosimilar development and commercialization program | | May 14, 2026 | Anthropic x Gates Foundation | $200 million | Back AI-related public goods and areas including health and education | | May 19, 2026 | Incyte INCY.O x Edison Scientific | Undisclosed | Strategic collaboration to employ Kosmos, Edison’s AI scientist, for Incyte’s discovery and development work | | May 20, 2026 | Incyte x Genesis | Upfront consideration of $120 million + over $1 billion if all milestones are achieved | Expand collaboration building and deploying AI to accelerate discovery of novel molecules for targets selected by Incyte | | May 20, 2026 | Bristol Myers Squibb x Anthropic | Undisclosed | Make Claude available to over 30,000 employees to accelerate discovery, development and delivery of new medicines | | May 20, 2026 | Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD) x Eli Lilly | Undisclosed | Integrate Lilly TuneLab into CDD Vault | | June 4, 2026 | Chai Discovery x Pfizer | Undisclosed | Use Chai's AI platform to help accelerate drug discovery and research | | June 5, 2026 | Sanofi x Owkin | New deal terms not disclosed; extends a 2021 partnership worth about €90 million ($105.10 million) | Develop AI tools to support drug research and development | | June 10, 2026 | Novartis x Orionis Biosciences | $40 mln upfront; up to $1.4 bln milestones + royalties | Discover and develop molecular glue medicines using Orionis' Allo-Glue platform | | June 17, 2026 | Jazz Pharmaceuticals x AbCellera | $56 mln upfront; up to $792 mln in milestone payments | Discover next-generation T-cell engaging multispecific antibodies | | July 1, 2026 | Takeda x Insilico Medicine | Up to $600 mln + tiered royalties | Use Insilico's AI platform to identify new drug candidates across Takeda's therapeutic areas | | July 13, 2026 | Chai Discovery x Novartis | Undisclosed | Use Chai's AI platform to support antibody drug discovery across multiple targets | | July 20, 2026 | Bristol Myers Squibb x NVIDIA | Undisclosed | Use Nvidia's AI computing system to help speed drug discovery and R&D | | July 30, 2026 | GSK x Relation Therapeutics | Up to $110 mln, including upfront payment and success-based milestones | Generate large-scale human cell data and train AI models to support drug discovery | | Aug 5, 2026 | Schrödinger x Bristol Myers Squibb | Undisclosed | Deploy Schrödinger's AI research assistant Bunsen in Bristol Myers' drug discovery efforts | | Aug 20, 2026 | Bristol Myers Squibb BMY.N × Chai Discovery | Undisclosed | Use Chai's AI models and platform to support discovery of therapeutic antibody candidates across Bristol Myers Squibb's pipeline | | Sept 16, 2026 | Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO x Anthropic | Undisclosed | Use Anthropic's Claude models to speed up discovery and development of new medicines | | Sept 16, 2026 | Eli Lilly LLY.N x Twist Bioscience TWST.O | Undisclosed | Provide Twist’s antibody data services for Lilly’s AI platform, TuneLab, to help discover new antibody drugs | ($1 = 0.8563 euros)

Pharma sector doubles down on AI to slash costs, timelines

Pharma companies expand AI use across research and development

Major AI-related partnerships announced from 2025 through September 2026

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