Sanofi just signed a new multi-year AI drug discovery deal with Owkin.
The goal:
Build AI-powered “biopharma agents” that can support drug discovery and development from early research through clinical trials.
This is not an isolated deal.
In 2026 alone:
Sanofi partnered deeper with Owkin for AI drug discovery.
Bristol Myers Squibb signed with Anthropic to roll out Claude across research, clinical development, manufacturing, commercial, and corporate teams.
Gilead expanded its deal with Tempus AI for enterprise-wide access to AI tools and real-world oncology data.
Eli Lilly partnered with Chai Discovery, Noetik, and Insilico Medicine.
Pfizer signed with Boltz for custom AI models in antibody and small-molecule design.
Takeda partnered with Iambic Therapeutics in a deal worth more than 1.7 Billion Dollars.
Drug development is slow, expensive, and failure-heavy.
AI is being positioned as the operating layer that can help pharma companies find better targets, design better molecules, improve trial selection, and reduce wasted R&D spending.