Servier and Google Cloud Expand Partnership on using Data and AI

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Jan 16, 2025, 03:01 ET

Servier to leverage Google Cloud AI across R&D, production, and distribution, accelerating digital transformation to benefit patients.
These new advancements in artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence are in line with Servier's cloud and data strategy, implemented to accelerate its digital transformation.

SURESNES, France and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical group, and Google Cloud, today announced an expanded five-year partnership focused on using AI and generative AI (gen AI) to accelerate the research and development (R&D) of innovative therapeutic solutions for patients.

Accelerating AI initiatives for R&D concretely

It takes on average almost 15 years to develop a drug^¹, from research to clinical development to making it accessible to patients. Reducing the attrition rate of drug candidates is therefore a key challenge that helps maximize the chances of success and accelerate the development phases, particularly in rare diseases where patient needs are not often met.

"At Servier, we firmly believe that the combination of scientific innovation and advanced digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence, will enable us to bring innovative treatments to patients more quickly and more personalized solutions. Our enhanced collaboration with Google Cloud gives us the opportunity to harness the full potential of AI to reach scientific conclusions more rapidly and thus increase the productivity of our R&D," said Claude Bertrand, Executive Vice President Research & Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Servier.

AI technologies contribute to Servier's ambition to improve the productivity of its research and development for the benefit of the patients. By analyzing large amounts of medical data in real time, researchers and clinicians will be able to save valuable time, particularly in identifying therapeutic targets and patient subpopulations most likely to respond positively to a treatment in development. Servier also sees AI as a formidable tool for developing more personalized therapeutic solutions more rapidly.

Approximately 60 gen AI use cases have been identified so far to accelerate drug development, including the identification of new therapeutic targets and screening (early research), increasing the probability of success, accelerating time to market, understanding the biological evolution of pathologies and drugs to optimize formulas, developing precision medicine, digitalizing clinical trials for recruitment and overall remote trial management. It will also include predictive maintenance for production, supply chain optimization, and reduction of its environmental impact, strengthening interaction between patients and healthcare professionals, and optimizing regulatory affairs management and the group's overall efficiency.

Supporting the deployment of AI for increased efficiency, securely

Servier views AI as a crucial element of its digital transformation journey and has started to provide the group's employees with a set of tools based on Google and Google Cloud generative AI technologies, including its Gemini large language models. The implementation of these technologies aims to improve the overall efficiency of the group's activities across its entire value chain, for all teams and in compliance with the strictest requirements in terms of data security and confidentiality.

Google Cloud will thus support Servier's teams in integrating various AI technologies across its entire value chain, while ensuring the security and confidentiality of the data that will be generated.

"We are delighted to extend our partnership with Google Cloud, which fully reflects our ambition to become a best-in-class digital player in the pharmaceutical sector. By deploying Google Cloud AI solutions across our entire value chain, we are confirming our commitment to innovation for therapeutic progress, with a single objective: to accelerate and improve research for the benefit of patients," said Virginie Dominguez, Executive Vice President Digital Data and Information Systems at Servier.

"We are both delighted and impressed by Servier's use of our AI and generative AI technology to accelerate its research and development programs," said Shweta Maniar, global director, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Google Cloud. "Servier is moving quickly from experimentation to production, in a pragmatic way, with a clear priority given to ethics, confidentiality and security. This collaboration will lead to new progress in the research and treatment of many diseases in the years to come -- we can't wait to see what will come next."

In August 2022, Servier and Google Cloud signed an initial five-year partnership aimed at deploying a robust technological structure within the Servier group to secure data and accelerate the deployment of initiatives such as AI. This partnership has now been extended for an additional five years, two years into the original agreement.

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 21,900 employees of the Group are committed to this shared vocation, 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 hard-to-treat cancers. That is why the Group allocates over 70% of its R&D budget to developing targeted and innovative therapies in oncology.  

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 and in Brazil.  

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 €5.3 billion in 2023.  

More information on the new Group website: servier.com 

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

^¹ Principles of early drug discovery - PMC

SOURCE Google Cloud