AI is reshaping how drugs are discovered, developed, and delivered.
In the lab. A wave of recent partnerships and product launches signals pharma’s full-stack AI shift — bringing new tech to R&D, manufacturing, and operations.
- NVIDIA x Lilly. Eli Lilly announced a $1B co-innovation lab with NVIDIA and signed a $2.75B deal with AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine.
- OpenAI x Novo. OpenAI introduced biology-native model GPT-Rosalind while partnering with Novo Nordisk.
- Anthropic x Coefficient. Anthropic launched Claude for Life Sciences and acquired AI-driven biotech startup Coefficient Bio in a $400M deal.
Elsewhere, Amazon launched Bio Discovery via Amazon Web Services, and Merck struck a $1B deal with Google Cloud.
Inside track. Hiring insiders to navigate healthcare’s complexity, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan joined Anthropic’s board, and Insilico Medicine formed a longevity-focused scientific panel stacked with pharma execs.
Reboot. Drug R&D productivity has declined ~80x since 1950. AI could overhaul a slow, expensive process defined by decade-long timelines, billions in costs, and 90%+ failure rates — but clinical trials and real-world validation remain bottlenecks.
Valued at $1.8B, Sam Altman-backed Formation Bio uses AI to rescue and advance stalled drug candidates, compressing clinical timelines and improving trial success rates.
Building foundation models for molecule design, OpenAI-backed Chai Discovery raised $130M+ to increase the volume of viable drug candidates entering the pipeline.
As AI generates more drug candidates faster, 10x Science just raised $4.8M to test and validate which ones actually work.
But… Not without risks, researchers warn that AI trained on biological data could be misused and produce unreliable results, prompting tighter controls and restricted access programs.
Looking ahead: Pharma is supercharging. As incumbents adapt and AI-native companies emerge, biology is becoming programmable. Demonstrated by GLP-1s, the effects of drug breakthroughs will ripple across wellness.
