Sanofi invests $180 million equity in Owkin’s artificial
intelligence and federated learning to advance oncology pipeline
Sanofi invests $180 million equity in Owkin’s artificial
intelligence and federated learning to advance oncology
pipeline
- Combined efforts will work to build robust disease models while
preserving privacy of large data sets from various research
institutions and hospitals
- Collaboration to focus on four types of cancer
PARIS – November 18, 2021 –
Sanofi announced today an equity investment of $180 million and a
new strategic collaboration with Owkin comprised of discovery and
development programmes in four exclusive types of cancer,
with a total payment of $90 million for three years plus
additional research milestone-based payments. Owkin, an artificial
intelligence (AI) and precision medicine company, builds
best-in-class predictive biomedical AI models and robust data sets.
With the ambition to optimize clinical trial design and detect
predictive biomarkers for diseases and treatment outcomes, this
collaboration will support Sanofi’s growing oncology portfolio in
core areas such as lung cancer, breast cancer and multiple
myeloma.
To accelerate medical research with AI in a
privacy-preserving way, Owkin has assembled a global research
network powered by federated learning, which allows data scientists
to securely connect to decentralized, multi-party data sets and
train AI models without having to pool data. This approach will
complement Sanofi’s emerging strength in oncology, as the company’s
scientists apply cutting-edge technology platforms to design
potentially life-transforming medicines for cancer patients
worldwide.
"Owkin’s unique methodology, which applies AI on patient data
from partnerships with multiple academic medical centers, supports
our ambition to leverage data in innovative ways in R&D,” said
Arnaud Robert, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer,
Sanofi. “We are striving to advance precision medicine to the next
level and to discover innovative treatment methods with the
greatest benefits for patients.”
Sanofi will leverage the comprehensive Owkin
Platform, in order to find new biomarkers and therapeutic targets,
building prognostic models, and predicting response to treatment
from multimodal patient data. Sanofi’s investment will support
Owkin’s development and goal to grow the world’s leading histology
and genomic cancer database from top oncology centers.
“Owkin’s mission is to improve patient’s lives
by using our platform to discover and develop the right treatment
for every patient,” said Thomas Clozel, M.D., Co-Founder and CEO at
Owkin. “We believe that the future of precision medicine lies in
technologies that can unlock insights from the vast amount of
patient data in hospitals and research centers in a
privacy-preserving and secure way. This landmark partnership with
Sanofi will see federated learning used to create research
collaborations at a truly unprecedented scale. The future of AI to
transform how we develop treatments is incredibly bright, and we
are proud to partner with Sanofi on this mission.”
This collaboration agreement will allow Sanofi
to work closely with Owkin in identifying new oncology treatments
across four cancers.
“We look forward to working with our colleagues
at Owkin to analyze data from hundreds of thousands of patients,”
said John Reed, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Research and
Development, Sanofi. “Sanofi's investment in the company includes a
three-year agreement that will help discover and develop new
treatments for non-small cell lung cancer, triple negative breast
cancer, mesothelioma and multiple myeloma. This partnership will
help accelerate our ambitious oncology program as we advance a rich
pipeline of medicines to address unmet patient needs.”
About Owkin
Owkin is a French American startup that
specializes in AI and federated learning for medical research. It
was co-founded in 2016 by Dr Thomas Clozel M.D., a clinical
research doctor and former assistant professor in clinical
hematology, and Dr Gilles Wainrib, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of
artificial intelligence in biology. Owkin has recently published
groundbreaking research at the frontier of AI and medicine in
Nature Medicine, Nature Communications and Hepatology. The Owkin
Platform connects life science companies with world-class academic
researchers and hospitals to share deep medical insights for drug
discovery and development. Using federated learning and
breakthrough collaborative AI technology, Owkin enables its
partners to unlock siloed datasets while protecting patient privacy
and securing proprietary data. Through sharing high-value insights,
the company powers unprecedented collaboration to improve patient
outcomes. Owkin works with the most prominent cancer centers and
pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the US. Key achievements to
date include HealthChain and MELLODDY; two Owkin led federated
learning consortia fuelling unprecedented collaboration in academic
research and drug discovery, respectively. For more information,
please visit Owkin.com and follow @OWKINscience on Twitter.
About SanofiSanofi is dedicated
to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a
global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We
prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to
fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from
rare diseases and the millions with long-term chronic conditions.
With more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is
transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around
the globe.
Media Relations ContactsSally BainTel: +1 (781)
264-1091Sally.Bain@sanofi.com
Nicolas Obrist Tel: + 33 6 77 21 27
55Nicolas.Obrist@sanofi.com
Investor Relations Contacts ParisEva
Schaefer-JansenArnaud DelepineNathalie Pham
Investor Relations Contacts North AmericaFelix
Lauscher
Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 45
45investor.relations@sanofi.comhttps://www.sanofi.com/en/investors/contact
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