Sanofi, Google to Develop New Healthcare Innovation Lab

On June 18, 2019, Sanofi and Google announced plans to establish a new virtual innovation lab to develop both scientific and commercial solutions. The goal of the innovation lab is to transform the delivery process for future medicines and health services by using emerging data technologies. 

The collaboration aims to change how Sanofi develops new treatments and will focus on three key objectives: to better understand patients and diseases, to increase Sanofi’s operational efficiency, and to improve the experience of Sanofi’s patients and customers. Sanofi and Google will leverage deep analytics across data sets to better understand key diseases and extract related patient insights. This will enable Sanofi to research and develop more personalized approaches to treatment and identify accompanying technologies to improve health outcomes. The companies will apply technology and analytics on Sanofi’s large real-world database to better understand what treatments work for patients. This is expected to result in an improved ability to offer personalized treatment advice, thus optimizing patient care and reducing healthcare costs, according to Sanofi.

Sanofi and Google also plan to apply artificial intelligence (AI) across diverse datasets to better forecast sales and inform marketing and supply chain efforts. Sanofi states that using AI will take into account real-time information as well as geographic, logistic, and manufacturing constraints to help the accuracy of these complex activities.

Additionally, Sanofi IT will modernize its infrastructure by migrating some existing business applications to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). By leveraging automation, scalability, and agility-along with increases in data and analytic capabilities-Sanofi aims to accelerate and simplify legacy management, provide improved access to recent technologies and its integration into business plans. The transition to GCP is expected to maximize operational cost efficiency and support business objectives, including the innovation lab.

“We stand on the forefront of a new age for biology and human health, with the opportunity to transform healthcare through partnerships with pioneering technology and analytics companies,” says Ameet Nathwani, MD, chief digital officer, chief medical officer, and executive vice-president of Medical at Sanofi, in a company press release. “Combining Sanofi’s biologic innovations and scientific data with Google’s industry-leading capabilities, from cloud computing to state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, we aspire to give people more control over their health and accelerate the discovery of new therapies.”

Source: Sanofi