Pharmaceutical firm Sanofi provided $180m in equity funding yesterday for Owkin, the US-headquartered developer of a software platform that enables researchers to collaborate on cancer drug development.
Owkin’s software utilises federated learning and collaborative artificial intelligence technology to help cancer researchers and hospitals share siloed data without compromising the privacy of patients.
The Sanofi investment was made through a strategic collaboration agreement which will involve it supplying $90m over three years to support discovery and development work on four kinds of cancer, in addition to milestone payments related to research.
Sanofi’s chief digital officer, Arnaud Robert, said: “Owkin’s unique methodology, which applies AI on patient data from partnerships with multiple academic medical centres, supports our ambition to leverage data in innovative ways in [research and development].
“We are striving to advance precision medicine to the next level and to discover innovative treatment methods with the greatest benefits for patients.”
The deal followed a series A round closed at $70m in June 2020 with backing from internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet’s GV subsidiary.
The series A round also featured investment and financial services group Fidelity’s Eight Road Ventures and F-Prime Capital funds, BPIfrance’s Large Venture fund, Mubadala Capital, Otium Venture, Cathay Capital, Plug and Play, NJF Capital and MACSF.
