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

Jan 15 (Reuters) – Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to accelerate R&D, betting on new modeling tools and automated labs to unlock efficiency gains across their pipeline.

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 early 2026:

Deal Partners Deal size Primary objective

announcem (as

ent reported)

Jan 7, PostEra $610 mln Expand

2025 × Pfizer potential; Pfizer–PostEra AI

incl. $12 Lab and add ADC

mln upfront payload‑design

program

Jan 13, IQVIA × Undisclosed Build custom AI

2025 NVIDIA models/agents to

automate

R&D–commercial

workflows

Feb 20, Incyte × $30 mln Use GEMS platform

2025 Genesis upfront; up to design small

Therapeu to $295 molecules for

tics mln/target Incyte targets

milestones

+ royalties

Mar 3, Kyndryl Undisclosed Deploy

2025 × Dragon Copilot to

Microsof reduce

t documentation

burden

Mar 18, GE Undisclosed Develop

2025 HealthCa autonomous X‑ray

re × and ultrasound

NVIDIA workflows

Mar 25, Clevelan Undisclosed Form task force to

2025 d Clinic accelerate AI use

× G42 in care and

operations

Apr 16, Kenvue × Undisclosed Modernize

2025 Microsof (5‑yr) operations using

t Azure, genAI, and

digital twins

Apr 29, Eli $13 mln Use AI

2025 Lilly × upfront; engine to design

Creyon >$1 bln improved

Bio milestones RNA‑targeted oligos

May 21, Genentec $105 mln

2025 h upfront; Discover monovalent

(Roche) >$2 bln molecular glues

× milestones using Allo‑Glue

Orionis + royalties platform

Bioscien

ces

Jun 11, Novo Undisclosed Build bespoke AI

2025 Nordisk models using Gefion

× NVIDIA supercomputer

× DCAI

(Gefion)

Jun 13, AstraZen $110 mln Discover oral drug

2025 eca × upfront; up candidates; AZ

CSPC to $1.62 holds global

Pharmace bln dev licensing rights

utical milestones;

up to $3.6

bln sales

milestones

Jun Pfizer × Undisclosed Expand to next‑gen

29–30, XtalPi physics + AI

2025 modelling platform

Jul 2, AstraZen Undisclosed Use multimodal AI

2025 eca × (multi‑year models to speed

Modella ) oncology

AI development

Aug 14, Eli Up to $1.3 Apply AI GPCR

2025 Lilly × bln + platform to

Superlum royalties undisclosed targets

inal

Medicine

s

Sep 1, Universi £118 mln Use AI + challenge

2025 ty of funding models to map

Oxford × correlates of

Ellison immunity

Institut

e

Sep 23, Merck Undisclosed Connect R&D and

2025 KGaA × (MoU) manufacturing

Siemens through Siemens

digital platforms

Oct 14, Takeda × Double‑digi Use JAM AI model to

2025 Nabla t millions design antibodies

Bio upfront + and multispecifics

>$1 bln

milestones

Oct Novartis ~$12 bln Acquire

26–27, × cash Avidity to

2025 Avidity strengthen xRNA and

Bioscien neuromuscular

ces portfolio

Oct 28, Eli Undisclosed Build large‑scale

2025 Lilly × (>1,000 AI supercomputer

NVIDIA GPUs) for R&D

Oct 28, Johnson Undisclosed Use Isaac +

2025 & Omniverse to

Johnson simulate OR

MedTech workflows

× NVIDIA

Nov 10, Eli >$100 mln Use Pharma.AI to

2025 Lilly × potential + design

Insilico royalties small‑molecule

Medicine candidates

Nov 20, Merck Over $3 bln Use Valo’s

2025 KGaA × potential human‑data AI to

Valo identify targets

Health and speed

preclinical work

Dec 9, Novartis $55 mln Use AI +

2025 × upfront + multi‑omics to find

Relation up to $1.7 first‑in‑class

Therapeu bln targets

tics milestones

Jan 7, GSK × Undisclosed Provide GSK exome +

2026 Helix longitudinal data

for target

discovery

Jan 8, GSK × $50 mln License AI

2026 Noetik upfront + virtual‑cell models

near‑term for cancer research

milestones

Jan 8, Pfizer × Undisclosed Fine‑tune Boltz AI

2026 Boltz models with Pfizer

data

Jan 9, Schrodin Undisclosed

2026 ger × Integrate TuneLab

Eli models into

Lilly LiveDesign

Jan 12, NVIDIA × Undisclosed Pair NVIDIA AI with

2026 Thermo lab instruments for

Fisher automation

Jan 12, NVIDIA × Up to $1 Create closed-loop

2026 Eli bln over 5 AI + robotics

Lilly years discovery lab

Jan 13, Illumina Undisclosed Launch Billion Cell

2026 × Atlas for

AstraZen large‑scale AI

eca × training

Merck ×

Eli

Lilly

Jan 13, AstraZen Undisclosed Acquire

2026 eca Modella to deploy

acquires foundation models

Modella across oncology R&D

AI

(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)