BenevolentAI and Novartis sign AI R&D deal

The Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based drug development firm BenevolentAI has signed an agreement with Novartis to find potential new uses for oncology drugs already in its pipeline. UK-based BenevolentAI said the collaboration programme will be led by Novartis’ Precision Medicine Team, within the company’s Global Drug Development operation. The so-called “framework collaboration” will see the two companies investigate indications and responder groups for oncology drugs currently in clinical development. BenevolentAI will apply its technology designed to enable better data-driven decisions to find new ways to treat disease and personalise drugs for patients. The UK firm’s technology scans through molecular, clinical, pharmacological data and scientific literature to derive relationships in the data between genes, diseases, drugs and biological pathways leading to the proposal of novel or optimal drug targets. It aims to support scientists designing and optimising drug molecules for defined patient populations. Founded in 2013, London-based BenevolentAI is already well-established in the field of drug R&D and is considered to be a biotech “unicorn” – a privately-held company worth more than $1 billion.