Lundbeck names AI head in quest to become 'bionic' company
Markus Kede will become chief AI officer at Lundbeck on 1st July.
Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck has appointed Markus Kede to the role of chief AI officer (CAO), promoting him from the role of head of finance and business planning.
The newly-created role means Kede will be relocating from Lundbeck's US headquarters at Deerfield, Illinois – where he also chairs the company's US digital and AI strategy committee –to his native Sweden, and will report directly to the drugmaker's chief executive, Charl van Zyl.
In a statement, the central nervous system diseases specialist said that Kede's new role is "an important step in Lundbeck's ambition to become a bionic company"; in other words, one in which human intelligence is integrated with AI, data analytics, automation, and other digital technologies.
Kede has been given the task of leading "the continued evolution and execution of Lundbeck's global AI strategy," according to the company, specifically by setting up strong governance and responsible AI practices, building new AI capabilities, and driving scalable deployment across the company's business areas.
He will also help oversee Lundbeck's existing and future collaborations with AI partners, including a wide-ranging alliance set up last year with OpenAI focusing on the application of AI across its functions, from 'molecule to patient'.
Others include a 2024 partnership with Iambic Therapeutics, tapping into the latter's AI-powered drug discovery platform to find small-molecule therapeutics for treating migraine, and a collaboration with the Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI) focusing on the operation of Gefion, Denmark's first AI supercomputer, to accelerate drug discovery and development within the neurological and psychiatric field.
"Becoming a bionic company is one of our key strategic focus areas," said van Zyl. "AI is not only about technology implementation. It is about transforming how we think, decide, and execute across our entire value chain. Markus brings the enterprise mindset and proven track record needed to embed AI into our business in a responsible and value-creating way."
Kede, who has been with Lundbeck for more than 11 years, said in a LinkedIn post that, "together with a strong team and in close cross-functional partnership, we will lead the continued evolution and execution of Lundbeck's AI strategy, with a clear mandate to ensure strong prioritisation, responsible governance, and a sharp focus on measurable value creation."
He is due to take up the CAO position on 1st July.
