Nordisk is partnering with OpenAI to “bring new and better treatment options to patients faster,” the Danish drugmaker said Tuesday.
The partnership will allow Novo to better use AI to analyze complex data sets, identify promising new drugs and reduce the time it takes for a drug to move from the research stage to patient use, the company said in a statement.
“There are millions of people living with obesity and diabetes who need treatment options, and we know there are still therapies waiting to be discovered that could change their lives,” said Novo CEO Mike Doustdar. “Integrating AI into our daily work gives us the ability to analyze data sets at a scale that was previously impossible, identify patterns we couldn't see, and test hypotheses faster than ever before.”
“AI is reshaping industries, and in the life sciences, it can help people live better and longer,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The stock rose 2.8% shortly after the opening bell.
This comes as drugmakers increasingly turn to AI to improve operations and time-consuming processes. While AI could uncover new treatments, experts say the industry is still far from realizing the technology's full potential and more immediate benefits could be gained by using it in other areas of drug development. AI can, for example, help companies in the time-consuming task of identifying patients and sites for clinical trials.
“We haven't heard the last of this yet… in terms of how clinical trials are designed and executed, many of them are still very traditional, with certain points where AI is leveraged,” Ben van der Schaaf, a partner at Arthur D. Little, told CNBC last month. “AI is not an end-to-end component yet.”
Novo's latest move builds on its current AI initiatives, which also include a collaboration with NVIDIA use Gefion's sovereign AI supercomputer to “accelerate drug discovery efforts through innovative AI use cases.” The companies said last year that their goal is to create custom AI models and agents that Novo can use for early research and clinical development.
Novo Nordisk is locked in a race with its American rival Eli Lilly for dominance in the lucrative weight loss market, in which it has lost its first-mover advantage. Novo is now trying to regain market share through its Wegovy pill, launched in January, and next-generation drugs.
