SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 13 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca has agreed to buy Boston-based Modella AI, the companies said on Tuesday, as the drug industry increases its use of artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new drugs.
The companies did not disclose financial terms. In a press release, Modella AI said its "foundation models" and AI agents would be integrated into oncology research and development to support clinical development and biomarker discovery.
"Oncology drug development is becoming more complex, more data-rich and more time-sensitive," said Gabi Raia, Modella AI's chief commercial officer, adding that joining AstraZeneca would allow it to deploy its tools in global trials and clinical settings.
AstraZeneca said that this was the first acquisition of an AI firm by a big pharmaceutical company.
In an interview at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, AstraZeneca Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said the acquisition would "supercharge" the company's quantitative pathology and biomarker discovery efforts by bringing more data and AI capabilities in-house.
The deal was one of a number of pacts between major drug firms and AI companies that were unveiled at the healthcare conference, including a $1 billion collaboration between Nvidia and Eli Lilly. They plan to build a new research lab using Nvidia's latest-generation AI chips.
Modella will accelerate AstraZeneca’s efforts to make pathology more quantitative - using computers to analyze biopsies for relevant proteins and correlate them with clinical data - so AstraZeneca can develop “highly targeted biomarkers and then highly targeted therapeutics,” Sarin said.
The deal is an expansion of a multi-year collaboration that the companies unveiled in July.
Sarin said that partnership served as a "test drive," adding that AstraZeneca ultimately wanted Modella's data, foundation models and AI talent in-house.
She said AI tools could be used to more rapidly select patients for drug trials, which could increase the odds of clinical success and cut related costs.
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
LATEST POSTS
- 1
2025 Yachting Editors' Choice Awards: Yachts - 2NASA's Artemis II launch leaves Americans in awe: 'We're going back to the frickin' moon!'
- 3Why this Tennessee special election has the 'whole world' watching
- 4Astronauts' brains change shape and position after time in space, study finds
- 5Vote in favor of Your Number one Cake Type
- NATO needs Ukraine's 'adaptation DNA' and an 'HOV lane' for new war tech, top commander says
- Instructions to Perceive and Grasp the Early Side effects of Cellular breakdown in the lungs
- Relentless rise in carbon pollution from fossil fuels slightly dampens climate-fighting hopes
- Foreign military officials can become Israel's ambassadors, senior IDF commander tells 'Post'
- I'm a hypnotherapist who helps day traders who are losing money. Here's why I think hypnosis works.
- Surging measles cases are 'fire alarm' warning that other diseases could be next
- Unpaid caregiving work can feel small and personal, but that doesn’t take away its ethical value
- Remains of banker missing since 1999 found on California beach by family looking for seashells
- Vote in favor of your Favored sort of footwear
