Sanofi–Owkin: AI-based drug development, 202403– collab expansion into using AI for drug positioning in immunology

	Period	2024-03-21
	Predecessor	Sanofi–Owkin: cancer drug RnD, 202111– strategic collaboration with $90m for three years + milestones
	Partner, 1st	Sanofi S.A. (Euronext: SAN, Nasdaq: SNY)
	Group	Sanofi (Group) [since May 2011]
	Partner, 2nd	Owkin (FR)
	Group	Owkin (Group)
	Product	AI-based drug discovery / AI-based drug development
	Product 2	immunology
	Person	de Rinaldis, Emanuele (Sanofi 202403 VP Global Head of Precision Medicine & Computational Biology)

Owkin. (3/21/24). "Press Release: Owkin Expands Collaboration with Sanofi Leveraging AI for Drug Positioning in immunology".

Owkin, the first end-to-end TechBio unicorn that provides best-in-class AI-driven precision drug discovery, development and diagnostics by matching new biology to new populations, has announced the expansion of their collaboration with Sanofi to include immunology.

In their work with Sanofi on target identification, the team at Owkin used their cutting-edge AI drug target discovery engine to identify the best candidate gene targets with their associated subpopulations of interest. This enables their partners to understand an individual’s unique biology and design tailored treatments.

The next phase of the collaboration will be focused on drug positioning within Sanofi’s immunology therapeutic pipeline. To do this, Owkin will combine existing knowledge and machine learning to identify the best disease indications and match the most effective subpopulations for specific drugs using multimodal data. Through the integration of AI and data into drug development programs, Owkin’s aim is to help improve patient outcomes.

Thomas Clozel, Chief Executive Officer at Owkin, said:
“The progress of our strategic alliance with Sanofi brings us closer to achieving our mission of finding the right treatment for every patient. The new projects within Sanofi’s Immunology therapeutic pipeline are further validation of our approach of applying AI to multimodal data to discovering and developing new treatments. We’re incredibly excited to see how our collaborative efforts with Sanofi can help fulfil the promise of AI in drug discovery for Immunology.”

Emanuele de Rinaldis, VP, Global Head of Precision Medicine & Computational Biology at Sanofi, said:
“The AI and multimodal data analysis approaches we are collaborating on will help to understand patient heterogeneity and to enable future precision medicine strategies in immunology. Our intent is for patients to receive the most effective therapy based on their specific molecular and cellular features driving their disease.”

In November 2021, Sanofi made an equity investment of $180 million and entered into a strategic alliance with Owkin to work on drug discovery and development programmes.

About Owkin

Owkin is the first end-to-end TechBio company on a mission to understand complex biology and derive new multimodal biomarkers through AI. We identify precision therapeutics, de-risk and accelerate clinical trials and develop diagnostics using AI trained on world-class patient data through privacy-enhancing federated technologies.

We merge wet lab experiments with advanced AI techniques to create a powerful feedback loop for accelerated discovery and innovation in oncology, cardiovascular, immunity and inflammation. Owkin also founded MOSAIC, the world’s largest spatial multi-omics atlas for cancer research.

Owkin has raised over $300 million through investments from leading biopharma companies, including Sanofi and BMS, and venture funds like Fidelity, GV and Bpifrance, among others.