Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk and Washington-based technology corporation Microsoft announced an exciting collaboration today, sharing the news of a partnership that will leverage Microsoft’s cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) services with Novo Nordisk’s drug discovery and development powers.
In the press release, the companies said that they hope the alliance will help them develop AI models aimed to accelerate Novo Nordisk’s R&D. Initially, the AI models created from the affiliation will be used to automate the summarization and analysis of scientific literature. Subsequent use of the models would help predict a patient’s risk of cardiovascular conditions by identifying biomarkers of disease and therapeutic targets.
Currently, Novo Nordisk's top-selling product is Ozempic, a glucagon-like peptide 1 used for the treatment of diabetes and weight management. According to Statista, it generated over 33 billion kroner (DKK) in sales in 2021, which converts to $4 billion.
“The collaboration with Novo Nordisk is a great opportunity for us to collectively advance the state of the art of AI itself and apply it in a way that amplifies the creativity of human experts,” said Vijay Mital, corporate vice president, AI Architecture & Strategy in Microsoft’s Technology & Research division.