The basics:

• Novo Nordisk names AWS as strategic AI partner
• Collaboration aims to accelerate drug discovery
• New London hub will unite AWS, Novo Nordisk teams
• AI use will expand across R&D, commercial operations, IT

Novo Nordisk is deepening its push into artificial intelligence through a new strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services. The collaboration aims to accelerate drug discovery and expand the use of AI across the pharmaceutical company.

Under the agreement announced Aug. 10, AWS will become Novo Nordisk’s preferred cloud partner and strategic AI partner. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The collaboration includes a new co-innovation hub at Novo Nordisk’s facility in London. There, AWS engineers, AI specialists and scientists will work with the pharma giant’s research teams to analyze scientific data and help accelerate drug discovery.

Additionally, the partnership will expand AI use across other areas of Novo Nordisk’s business, including research and development, commercial operations and information technology, the companies said.

As a leading global healthcare company, Novo Nordisk employs about 66,700 people in 80 countries. Its key medicines include blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight management. While headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk has its U.S. base in Plainsboro.

AI in practice

The new agreement builds on an existing relationship with AWS. Novo Nordisk said that more than 25,000 of its employees already use AWS-powered AI tools to boost productivity.

Specifically, Novo Nordisk leveraged AWS technology to develop a generative AI chatbot that helps retrieve information, draft documents and act as virtual colleagues for nonregulated processes, according to the companies.

Novo Nordisk also collaborates with multiple Amazon businesses that support the healthcare space, including Amazon Pharmacy, Amazon Ads and Amazon One Medical, to transform how new therapies are marketed and delivered to patients.

Patient focus

Novo Nordisk CEO and President Mike Doustdar said partnering with AWS is “about making AI a driver of innovation” across the company.

“By combining our scientific expertise with AWS’ tools and purpose-built services for the life sciences industry, while also creating a dedicated co-innovation hub within our existing facility in London, we are accelerating discovery and developing responsible AI solutions that will create real progress for people living with serious chronic diseases,” he said.

[W]e are accelerating discovery and developing responsible AI solutions that will create real progress for people living with serious chronic diseases.
– Mike Doustdar, CEO and president, Novo Nordisk

AWS Chief Executive Officer Matt Garman commented, “Every part of our work with Novo Nordisk comes back to one thing: getting the right medicine to patients, faster.”

“Novo Nordisk has chosen AWS as their strategic AI partner to fundamentally change how medicines are discovered and developed using services such as Amazon Bio Discovery and Amazon Bedrock,” he said. “We’re excited to partner with Novo Nordisk so that these technologies, AWS Forward Deployed Engineers, and Novo Nordisk’s industry-leading science teams can help compress drug discovery timelines, securely process complex datasets, and scale findings across therapeutic areas.”

Tech and healthcare

Novo Nordisk joins pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna and Gilead Sciences in using AWS for research, drug development and other operations.

Other technology companies that are partnering with drugmakers across the industry include OpenAI, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google.

Novo Nordisk’s agreement with AWS comes four months after it announced a separate strategic partnership with OpenAI.As part of that arrangement, Novo Nordisk said it would use OpenAI’s capabilities to analyze complex datasets, identify promising drug candidates and reduce the time from research to patient.