Pharmaceutical group Servier has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, which is focused on utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate pharmaceutical R&D.
The novel agreement will see Servier emplot Google Cloud's AI and gen AI technologies for another five years after their original pact in 2022.
By utilising this next-generation technology, Servier hopes to expedite the identification and development of novel drug targets.
Accelerating R&D with AI
According to a paper from the British Journal of Pharmacology, it takes around 15 years to develop a drug from discovery to commercialisation.
As the process is long and resource-intensive, it is critical that pharmaceutical companies find a way to reduce the attrition rate of their therapeutic candidates.
This becomes particularly important in patients with rare diseases, where patient needs often remain unmet.
"At Servier, we firmly believe that the combination of scientific innovation and advanced digital technologies —especially artificial intelligence — will enable us to bring innovative treatments to patients more quickly and more personalised solutions," commented CSO and Executive VP at Servier, Claude Bertrand.
"Our enhanced collaboration with Google Cloud gives us the opportunity to harness the full potential of AI to reach scientific conclusions more rapidly and thus increase the productivity of our R&D,"
By utilising AI, Servier hopes to enhance the productivity of its R&D team by analysing large amounts of medical data in real time.
The technology, according to the company, will be particularly useful in identifying therapeutic targets, as well as patient subpopulations that are likely to benefit from a specific treatment.
AI could also play its role inthe development of personalised therapeutic solutions, which has proved challenging to date.
Utilising large language models for enhanced efficiency
Through this collaboration with Google Cloud, Servier will use the tech company's Gemini large language models to improve the group's efficiency across the entire value chain.
Google Cloud will also support Servier by ensuring the AI technologies implemented are keeping data secure and confidential.
Executive VP of Digital Data and Information Systems, Virgine Dominguez, added: "We are delighted to extend our partnership with Google Cloud, which fully reflects our ambition to become a best-in-class digital player in the pharmaceutical sector."
"By deploying Google Cloud AI solutions across our entire value chain, we are confirming our commitment to innovation for therapeutic progress, with a single objective: to accelerate and improve research for the benefit of patients,"
"We are both delighted and impressed by Servier's use of our AI and generative AI technology to accelerate its research and development programs," said Shweta Maniar, global director, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Google Cloud.
"Servier is moving quickly from experimentation to production, in a pragmatic way, with a clear priority given to ethics, confidentiality and security. This collaboration will lead to new progress in the research and treatment of many diseases in the years to come -- we can't wait to see what will come next."
[Image credit: Adobe Stock]
Reference
1 https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2010.01127.x