French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is set to collaborate with OpenAI, the US developer of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, to build AI-powered software to accelerate drug development.
The companies will also team up with US pharmaceutical group Formation Bio to research the potential positive impacts of AI for patients waiting for new treatments.
Under the deal, the companies would bring together data, software and tuned models to develop custom, purpose-built solutions across the drug development life-cycle.
Sanofi said it will leverage the partnership to provide access to proprietary data to develop AI models as it aims to become the first biopharma company powered by AI at scale.
Further, OpenAI, which is backed by tech giant Microsoft, will contribute access to cutting-edge AI capabilities, including the ability to fine-tune models, deep AI expertise and dedicated thought partnership and resources.
Formation Bio will provide extensive engineering resources, and experience operating at the intersection of pharma and AI.
Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson said: "This unique collaboration is the next significant step in our journey to becoming a pharmaceutical company substantially powered by AI."
"Next generation, first-of-its kind AI model customizations will be an important foundation in our efforts to shape the future of drug development for pharma and for the many patients waiting for innovative treatments," he added.
OpenAI last week entered into a deal with social media company Reddit to bring its content to ChatGPT and its products. OpenAI also agreed to become a Reddit advertising partner.
Bloomberg recently reported that tech giant Apple is in the final stages of reaching an agreement with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT features into its forthcoming iOS 18 mobile operating system.