Merck, the Rahway-based global biopharmaceutical giant, and Mayo Clinic, the nation’s top-ranked hospital system, announced Wednesday they will work together on research that uses artificial intelligence and other advanced data tools to discover and develop new medicines.
The agreement integrates Mayo Clinic's secure technology platform, as well as clinical and genomic datasets, with Merck's ambition to use AI-powered “virtual cell” technology to better understand diseases, identify promising drug targets, and make decisions about which treatments to develop.
By using the Mayo Clinic Platform—which securely combines patient and research data from Mayo Clinic and its global partners—Merck will tap into that clinical and genetic information, along with AI tools, to better study diseases and guide new drug discoveries.
The new Mayo Clinic Platform_Orchestrate program gives Merck & Co. direct access to Mayo Clinic’s medical experts, secure patient and research data (with identities removed), powerful AI and analytics tools, and the ability to scale these solutions quickly.
Merck will leverage Mayo Clinic's extensive multimodal data—including laboratory results, medical imaging, clinical notes, and molecular data—to support validation of AI models and help translate research insights into discovery and development strategies.
"New cutting-edge technologies are enhancing our ability to innovate with the potential to bring important new therapies to patients faster,” said Robert M. Davis, Chairman and CEO, Merck.
“By working with Mayo Clinic, we aim to integrate high-quality clinical data and AI-enabled insights into discovery research to improve target identification and, ultimately, the probability of success for our programs,” Davis said.
The agreement marks Mayo Clinic's first strategic collaboration of this scale with a global biopharmaceutical company. The collaboration will initially focus on high-need therapeutic areas in three specialties where advanced analytics and multimodal approaches have the potential to advance progress in the development of more effective and tailored therapies:
- Gastroenterology — Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
- Dermatology — Atopic dermatitis
- Neurology — Multiple sclerosis
“By combining Mayo Clinic Platform's de-identified data, clinical expertise and Platform technology with Merck's world-class research and development capabilities, we are poised to speed innovative breakthroughs to patients and redefine drug development," said Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., President and CEO, Mayo Clinic.
"This collaboration represents a new present and future for healthcare—one where platform-based collaboration leads to more answers, more cures and better outcomes for patients worldwide," Farrugia said.
