Merck, Mayo Clinic launch AI-driven drug discovery partnership

Merck and Mayo Clinic are teaming up to use artificial intelligence (AI) and patient data to help discover and develop new therapies, the companies announced yesterday. The new partnership combines Merck's AI and machine learning (ML) research capabilities with Mayo's Platform infrastructure and vast clinical datasets.

The AI partnership aims to improve Merck's early research decisions and grow its clinical pipeline by combining its AI-powered virtual cell technology with Mayo Clinic Platform, which consolidates data from Mayo Clinic sites in the U.S. and its international partners.

"By combining Mayo Clinic Platform's de-identified data, clinical expertise and Platform technology with Merck's world-class research and development capabilities, we are poised to speed innovative breakthroughs to patients and redefine drug development," Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., Mayo Clinic's president and CEO, said in the joint press release.

Merck plans to tap Mayo's platform to analyze various types of data, including anonymous clinical information, test results, imaging, clinical notes, molecular data and biobanks, with the help of its AI/ML tools. The pharma titan will also have access to Mayo Clinic Platform_Orchestrate, which gives Merck direct access to Mayo Clinic's scientific teams and the ability to scale analytics solutions across research programs.

This expanded data insight could sharpen Merck's ability to decide which early-stage programs are worth moving forward.

"New cutting-edge technologies are enhancing our ability to innovate with the potential to bring important new therapies to patients faster," Robert M. Davis, Merck's chairman and CEO, also said in the release. "By working with Mayo Clinic, we aim to integrate high-quality clinical data and AI-enabled insights into discovery research to improve target identification and, ultimately, the probability of success for our programs."

Although the two companies have collaborated many times before, Mayo Clinic says this partnership is its first of this magnitude with the pharma giant.

According to the press release, the partnership will initially target three high-need therapeutic areas -- gastroenterology, dermatology and neurology -- focusing specifically on inflammatory bowel disease, atopic dermatitis and multiple sclerosis. These fields were chosen for their potential to benefit from integrated analytics and multimodal approaches, with the goal of developing more tailored and effective therapies, Merck said.

Much like Merck, other Big Pharma players are stepping up their investments in AI-driven drug discovery.

Last month, Eli Lilly partnered with Nvidia to invest $1 billion in a new AI lab to speed up drug discovery using Nvidia's BioNeMo platform and next-generation Vera Rubin architecture.

Novartis, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson have also ramped up the use of AI, signaling a broader industry push into AI-powered research and development.

Alivia Kaylor is a scientist and the senior site editor of Pharma Life Sciences