Owkin and Sanofi have announced a new multi-year collaboration aimed at accelerating drug discovery and development through advanced artificial intelligence technologies. The agreement will see the two companies co-develop next-generation biopharma agents powered by Owkin’s AI Scientist platform, K Pro, under a five-year licensing arrangement.
The partnership marks the latest chapter in a relationship that began in 2021, when the companies entered a €90 million strategic collaboration focused on oncology target identification and patient subgroup analysis. The scope of that agreement was later broadened to support drug positioning efforts within Sanofi’s immunology pipeline. The newly announced collaboration significantly expands the role of artificial intelligence within Sanofi’s research and development operations.
Under the terms of the agreement, Owkin will lead the end-to-end development of specialized AI-driven biopharma agents designed specifically for Sanofi’s needs. These intelligent systems are intended to function as autonomous research assistants capable of performing complex scientific and operational tasks across the drug development process. The agents will be deployed through K Pro and are expected to complement Sanofi’s existing investments in agentic AI technologies.
K Pro combines multimodal patient data with biological knowledge and advanced AI models to support pharmaceutical decision-making across the entire value chain. The platform is designed to assist researchers from the earliest stages of drug discovery through clinical development while also providing competitive intelligence and analytical insights. By integrating multiple data sources and automating complex workflows, the system aims to help scientists make faster, more precise, and more informed decisions.
Thomas Clozel, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Owkin, said the agreement reflects a shift toward embedding AI directly into pharmaceutical workflows. He noted that K Pro has the potential to help Sanofi unlock greater value from its data resources and strengthen decision-making throughout the development process.
“Building on our collaboration with Sanofi, this marks a shift toward truly embedded AI,” Clozel said. “Owkin believes that, with K Pro, Sanofi can further harness agentic systems within their own workflows, unlocking the full value of their data to accelerate better decisions across drug development.”
Sanofi also emphasized the strategic importance of artificial intelligence in transforming pharmaceutical research. Emmanuel Frenehard, the company’s Chief Digital Officer, said Sanofi continues to invest in cutting-edge AI technologies capable of improving efficiency and accelerating innovation.
“Across Sanofi, we are continually investing in frontier AI solutions with the potential to accelerate and improve decision-making throughout the drug development lifecycle,” Frenehard said. “By implementing purpose-built agentic systems into our workflows, we aim to empower our teams to operate with greater speed, depth, and confidence as we continue to work to deliver transformative outcomes for patients.”
The collaboration aligns with Owkin’s broader ambition to develop what it describes as Biological Artificial Superintelligence, a vision aimed at enabling scientific discoveries beyond the limits of human cognition alone. The company believes increasingly sophisticated AI agents could eventually help automate some of the most challenging aspects of pharmaceutical research and development, potentially shortening timelines, reducing costs, and improving the likelihood of successful therapeutic breakthroughs.
As pharmaceutical companies continue to embrace AI-driven innovation, the expanded partnership between Owkin and Sanofi underscores the growing role of intelligent systems in shaping the future of drug development.