Servier, a global independent pharmaceutical group, and Owkin, a French American biotech focused on applying artificial intelligence (AI) to drug discovery,
Multi-year agreement will use Owkin’s sophisticated AI to potentially enable Servier to develop novel therapeutics across various disease areas
PARIS, France and BOSTON, Mass., October 17th, 2023 – Servier, a global independent pharmaceutical group, and Owkin, a French American biotech focused on applying artificial intelligence (AI) to drug discovery, development, and diagnostics, today announced an innovative partnership to use AI to advance and accelerate better-targeted therapies across multiple disease areas, including oncology.
“I firmly believe that the convergence of scientific and medical breakthroughs, amplified by advanced technologies like AI, holds the key to swiftly introducing groundbreaking treatments that could usher in a new era of innovation for patient care” said Claude Bertrand, Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Servier. “As an independent company, Servier can focus long-term. We look forward to partnering with Owkin to optimize our drug positioning and patient stratification to potentially bring the right treatment, to the right patient.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Servier whose primary focus is scientific development,” said Thomas Clozel, co-founder, and CEO of Owkin. “This alliance is a further proof point of the pharmaceutical industry’s readiness to innovate and to advance precision medicine using AI. Our cutting-edge tools can help our partners deliver better R&D results and better outcomes for patients with cancer and other serious diseases.”
The two companies will initially tackle two major challenges within translational medicine and digital pathology. Owkin will apply state-of-the-art machine learning to Servier’s extensive clinical data in order to deliver novel insights into the underlying biology of disease, identifying the patient populations most likely to benefit from Servier’s new therapies to improve patient outcomes. A multidisciplinary team of scientists, computational medicine experts and clinicians from Servier and Owkin will collaborate closely to drive the collaboration between Paris and Boston.
The first project aims to identify tumor types, tumor microenvironments, as well as de-identified patient subgroups that may optimally respond to a Servier asset. The two companies will then analyze tumor evolution to potentially identify drug combinations that may act on additional immune checkpoints or tumor cell-intrinsic mechanisms. The second project will explore the implementation of digital pathology and its potential to speed upscreening and enable broader analysis of tissue-based biomarkers.
Press contacts
Owkin US/UK Owkin France
Edward Farmer Malika Labou
edward.farmer-ext@owkin.com malika.labou-ext@owkin.com T: +354 863 1923 T: +33664154562
Servier
About Servier
Founded to serve health, Servier is a global pharmaceutical group governed by a Foundation that aspires to have a meaningful social impact, both for patients and for a sustainable world. With its unique governance model, it can fully serve its vocation with a long-term vision: being committed to therapeutic progress to serve patient needs. The 21,400 employees of the Group are committed to this shared vocation, a source of inspiration every day.
As a world leader in cardiology, Servier’s ambition is to become a focused and innovative player in oncology by targeting difficult and hard-to-treat cancers. That is why the Group allocates over 50% of its R&D budget to Oncology. Servier is the leader in mutant IDH inhibition, with the first ever mutant IDH1 inhibitor approved in the U.S. and the European Union, and the company continues to drive the science behind targeted mutant IDH inhibition.
Neuroscience and immuno-inflammatory diseases are the future growth drivers. In these areas, Servier is focused on a limited number of diseases in which accurate patient profiling makes it possible to offer a targeted therapeutic response through precision medicine. To promote access to quality care for all at a lower cost, the Group also offers a range of quality generic drugs covering most pathologies, relying on strong brands in France, Eastern Europe, Brazil and Nigeria. In all these areas, the Group includes the patient voice at each stage of the life cycle of a medicine.
Headquartered in France, Servier relies on a strong geographical footprint in over 150 countries and achieved a revenue of €4.9 billion in 2022.
For more information: servier.com
About Servier in oncology
Servier is a global leader in oncology focused on delivering meaningful therapeutic progress for the patients it serves. Governed by a non-profit foundation, Servier approaches innovation with a long-term vision, free of influence from investors and outside pressure to chase short-term monetary targets.
As a leader in oncology, Servier has significantly accelerated its investment in difficult and hard-to-tread cancers, with more than 50% of its research and development dedicated to delivering significant advances in areas of high unmet need throughout oncology with the potential to change the lives of the patients it serves. Within these areas, Servier is the leader in mutant IDH inhibition, with the first ever mutant IDH inhibitor approved in the U.S. and the European Union, and the company continues to drive the science behind targeted mutant IDH inhibition throughout its pipeline.
Servier’s commitment to therapeutic progress guides its collaboration strategy. While many companies across the industry are scaling back investments, Servier is actively building alliances, completing acquisitions, conducting licensing deals and entering new partnerships that can help to accelerate access to therapies for patients in need. With the company’s commercial expertise, global reach, scientific expertise and commitment to clinical excellence, Servier is dedicated to bringing the promise of tomorrow to the patients it serves.
About Owkin
Owkin is a TechBio company that combines the best of human and artificial intelligence to ensure every patient gets the right treatment. By understanding complex biology through AI, we identify new treatments, de-risk and accelerate clinical trials and develop AI diagnostics. Owkin uses privacy-enhancing federation to access up-to-date multimodal patient data that unlocks AI’s potential to power precision medicine. We merge wet-lab experiments with advanced AI techniques to create a powerful feedback loop for accelerated discovery and innovation.
Owkin founded MOSAIC, the world’s largest multi-omics atlas for cancer research.
Owkin has raised over $300 million through investments from leading biopharma companies (Sanofi and BMS) and venture funds (Fidelity, GV and BPI, among others).
Disclosures
This release contains general information about the Servier Group and its entities (hereinafter “Servier and its Affiliates”) and is intended for informational purposes only. The information is thought to be reliable; however, Servier and its Affiliates make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein or otherwise provided and accept no responsibility or liability, in contract, in tort, in negligence, or otherwise, should the information be found to be inaccurate or incomplete in any respect.
Servier and its Affiliates are not acting as an advisor to the recipient of this information, and the ultimate decision to proceed with any transaction rests solely with the recipient of this information. Therefore, prior to entering into any proposed transaction, the recipient of this information should determine, without reliance upon Servier or its Affiliates, the economic risks and merits, as well as the legal, tax, and accounting characterizations and consequences, of the transaction and that it is able to assume these risks.
This statement also contains forward-looking statements that are subject to varying levels of uncertainty and risk. Investigational new drugs and indications are subject to further scientific and medical review and regulatory approval. They are not approved for use by the FDA.
Any reliance placed on this document is done entirely at the risk of the person placing such reliance. The information contained in this document is neither an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to enter into a transaction.
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