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    Factbox: Pharma sector doubles down on AI amid hopes of slashing costs, timelines

    Picture of Thermo Fisher Scientific logoThermo Fisher Scientific
    20/05/2026 15:12
    Adds partnerships and deals announced after April

May 20 (Reuters) - 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.

Below are the major AI-related partnerships announced from 2025 through May 2026:


    Deal announcementPartnersDeal size (as reported)Primary objective
    Jan 7, 2025PostEra × Pfizer PFE.N$610 mln potential; incl. $12 mln upfrontExpand Pfizer–PostEra AI Lab and add ADC payload‑design program
    Jan 13, 2025IQVIA IQV.N × NVIDIA NVDA.OUndisclosedBuild custom AI models/agents to automate R&D–commercial workflows
    Feb 20, 2025Incyte INCY.O × Genesis Therapeutics$30 mln upfront; up to $295 mln/target milestones + royaltiesUse GEMS platform to design small molecules for Incyte targets
    Mar 3, 2025Kyndryl KD.N × Microsoft MSFT.OUndisclosedDeploy Dragon Copilot to reduce documentation burden
    Mar 18, 2025GE HealthCare GEHC.O × NVIDIAUndisclosedDevelop autonomous X‑ray and ultrasound workflows
    Mar 25, 2025Cleveland Clinic × G42UndisclosedForm task force to accelerate AI use in care and operations
    Apr 16, 2025Kenvue KVUE.N × MicrosoftUndisclosed (5‑yr)Modernize operations using Azure, genAI, and digital twins
    Apr 29, 2025Eli Lilly LLY.N × Creyon Bio$13 mln upfront; >$1 bln milestonesUse AI engine to design improved RNA‑targeted oligos
    May 21, 2025Genentech (Roche) ROG.S × Orionis Biosciences$105 mln upfront; >$2 bln milestones + royaltiesDiscover monovalent molecular glues using Allo‑Glue platform
    Jun 11, 2025Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO × NVIDIA × DCAI (Gefion)UndisclosedBuild bespoke AI models using Gefion supercomputer
    Jun 13, 2025AstraZeneca AZN.L × CSPC Pharmaceutical 1093.HK$110 mln upfront; up to $1.62 bln dev milestones; up to $3.6 bln sales milestonesDiscover oral drug candidates; AZ holds global licensing rights
    Jun 29–30, 2025Pfizer × XtalPi 2228.HKUndisclosedExpand to next‑gen physics + AI modelling platform
    Jul 2, 2025AstraZeneca × Modella AIUndisclosed (multi‑year)Use multimodal AI models to speed oncology development
    Aug 14, 2025Eli Lilly × Superluminal MedicinesUp to $1.3 bln + royaltiesApply AI GPCR platform to undisclosed targets
    Sep 1, 2025University of Oxford × Ellison Institute£118 mln fundingUse AI + challenge models to map correlates of immunity
    Sep 23, 2025Merck KGaA MRCG.DE × Siemens SIEGn.DEUndisclosed (MoU)Connect R&D and manufacturing through Siemens digital platforms
    Oct 14, 2025Takeda 4502.T × Nabla BioDouble‑digit millions upfront + >$1 bln milestonesUse JAM AI model to design antibodies and multispecifics
    Oct 26–27, 2025Novartis NOVN.S × Avidity Biosciences RNA.O~$12 bln cashAcquire Avidity to strengthen xRNA and neuromuscular portfolio
    Oct 28, 2025Eli Lilly × NVIDIAUndisclosed (>1,000 GPUs)Build large‑scale AI supercomputer for R&D
    Oct 28, 2025Johnson & Johnson MedTech JNJ.N × NVIDIAUndisclosedUse Isaac + Omniverse to simulate OR workflows
    Nov 10, 2025Eli Lilly × Insilico Medicine>$100 mln potential + royaltiesUse Pharma.AI to design small‑molecule candidates
    Nov 20, 2025Merck KGaA × Valo HealthOver $3 bln potentialUse Valo’s human‑data AI to identify targets and speed preclinical work
    Dec 9, 2025Novartis × Relation Therapeutics$55 mln upfront + up to $1.7 bln milestonesUse AI + multi‑omics to find first‑in‑class targets
    Jan 7, 2026GSK GSK.L × HelixUndisclosedProvide GSK exome + longitudinal data for target discovery
    Jan 8, 2026GSK × Noetik$50 mln upfront + near‑term milestonesLicense AI virtual‑cell models for cancer research
    Jan 8, 2026Pfizer × BoltzUndisclosedFine‑tune Boltz AI models with Pfizer data
    Jan 9, 2026Schrodinger SDGR.O × Eli LillyUndisclosedIntegrate TuneLab models into LiveDesign
    Jan 12, 2026NVIDIA × Thermo Fisher TMO.NUndisclosedPair NVIDIA AI with lab instruments for automation
    Jan 12, 2026NVIDIA × Eli LillyUp to $1 bln over 5 yearsCreate closed-loop AI + robotics discovery lab
    Jan 13, 2026Illumina ILMN.O × AstraZeneca × Merck MRK.N × Eli LillyUndisclosedLaunch Billion Cell Atlas for large‑scale AI training
    Jan 13, 2026AstraZeneca acquires Modella AIUndisclosedAcquire Modella to deploy foundation models across oncology R&D
    Apr 14, 2026Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO× OpenAIUndisclosedTo deploy AI across its business, from drug discovery to manufacturing and commercial operations
    Apr 14, 2026Labcorp LH.N x Amazon Web Services x DatavantUndisclosedA new AI-powered real-world data platform, designed to help researchers and biopharmaceutical companies analyze Alzheimer's disease-related data faster
    Apr 14, 2026Vasa Therapeutics x Eli LillyUndisclosedEnables Vasa to utilize Lilly TuneLab, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform that provides biotech companies access to drug discovery models trained on Lilly's proprietary data
    Apr 22, 2026Merck x Alphabet's Google Cloud$1 billionTo build up its AI capabilities, investing as much as $1 billion with Google over a number of years to fund AI infrastructure, engineers and licensing of the tech company's Gemini Enterprise platform.
    Apr 28, 2026Profluent x Eli LillyUpfront payment + eligible to receive up to $2.25 billion in development, commercial milestone payments and royaltiesResearch collaboration with Lilly to develop and commercialize custom site-specific recombinases to address diseases with severe unmet needs.
    May 6, 2026Simulations PlusSLP.Ox NVIDIAUndisclosedTechnical collaboration focused on enabling GPU-accelerated simulation and AI-assisted workflows for computationally intensive modeling applications within the drug development lifecycle.
    May 7, 2026Roche x PathAI$750 million upfront + additional milestone payments of up to $300 millionAcquisition strengthens Roche's position in digital pathology, ​which is ​helping ⁠to transform manual workflows into fully automated, AI-driven processes.
    May 13, 2026Owkin x AstraZenecaUndisclosedAgreement to build biopharma agents as part of their three-year licensing of K Pro – Owkin’s AI Scientist for biopharma decision making.
    May 13, 2026IQVIA x Kexing Biopharm 688136.SSUndisclosedTo support a global, multi-product biosimilar development and commercialization program.
    May 14, 2026Anthropic x Gates Foundation$200 millionTo back artificial intelligence-related public goods and areas including health and education
    May 19, 2026Incyte INCY.Ox Edison ScientificUndisclosedStrategic collaboration to employ Kosmos, Edison’s AI scientist, for Incyte’s discovery and development work.
    May 20, 2026Incyte x GenesisUpfront consideration of $120 million + Genesis eligible to receive over $1 billion if all milestones are achievedExpansion of collaboration building and deploying state-of-the-art AI to accelerate the discovery of novel molecules for collaboration targets selected by Incyte.
    May 20, 2026Bristol Myers Squibb x AnthropicUndisclosedTo make Claude AI model available to over 30,000 Bristol Myers employees in an effort to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of new medicines.
    May 20, 2026Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD)x Eli LillyUndisclosedTo integrate Lilly TuneLab, a collaborative AI/ML drug discovery platform, into CDD Vault.
    

 (Reporting by Kamal Choudhury, Puyaan Singh and Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Harikrishnan Nair and Tasim Zahid)

 ((Kamal.Choudhury@thomsonreuters.com;))

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