MSD and Mayo Clinic team up on AI drug discovery

MSD has signed a deal with the Mayo Clinic that will allow it to use the health system's genomic and clinical data for drug discovery.

The two will apply AI and advanced analytics to the project, which they say marks the first large-scale alliance of this kind between Mayo and a pharma group.

The agreement gives MSD (known as Merck & Co in the US and Canada) access to the Mayo Clinic Platform architecture – which covers de-identified laboratory results, medical imaging, clinical notes, molecular data, registries, and biorepositories – plus tools to interrogate the data, including AI tools and analytics.

Having access to high-quality, reliable datasets suitable for machine learning and the creation of good models has been identified as an obstacle to reaping the rewards promised by the application of AI to the drug discovery process.

MSD will incorporate Mayo Clinic's clinical insights and genomic data sets, including AI and machine learning-enabled discovery across computational and spatial biology, into its drug discovery operations. The toolkit will be used to "enhance disease understanding, improve target identification, and drive early development decisions," according to the company.

Robert Davis, MSD's chief executive, said the alliance will enhance the company's ability to innovate and potentially bring new therapies to patients faster.

"By working with Mayo Clinic, we aim to integrate high-quality clinical data and AI-enabled insights into discovery research to improve target identification and, ultimately, the probability of success for our programmes," he added.

Like all pharma groups, MSD is steadily building up the use of AI in R&D and other business operations, and in the last few months alone has signed several strategic partnerships to build its capabilities.

Last year, for example, the company entered into a $349 million agreement with Canadian company Variational AI to deploy its generative AI (GenAI) platform Enki in the discovery of new small-molecule medicines, and a partnership with real-world evidence (RWE) specialist Atropos Health to tap into their AI-enabled database of 300 million-plus de-identified patient records.

Gianrico Farrugia, president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, said that the collaboration with MSD "represents a new present and future for healthcare, one where platform-based collaboration leads to more answers, more cures, and better outcomes for patients worldwide."

The collaboration will initially focus on high-need therapeutic areas within inflammatory bowel disease, atopic dermatitis, and multiple sclerosis, said the partners.