Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, has signed a multi-year strategic research collaboration with American technology company NVIDIA to expedite drug discovery and development.
The partnership combines Genentech’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, biological and molecular datasets, and research expertise with NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing expertise.
The partnership is intended to improve Genentech’s advanced AI research programmes by converting its generative AI models and algorithms into a next-generation AI platform.
This will help accelerate the development and distribution of new treatments and medications to patients.
Genentech executive vice president and research and early development head Aviv Regev said: “Bringing science and technology together has always been a foundation of biomedical breakthroughs at Genentech.
“We are thrilled to join forces with NVIDIA to further optimise our drug discovery and development to deliver treatments that transform people’s lives.”
Together, both firms will aim to expedite and optimise Genentech’s proprietary machine learning (ML) algorithms and models.
Genentech said that they will use NVIDIA DGX Cloud, which offers a training-as-a-service platform based on specialised NVIDIA AI supercomputing and software, including NVIDIA BioNemo for generative AI applications in drug discovery.
To improve and scale Genentech’s models, the technology firm will collaborate with Genentech’s computational science teams to enhance its computing expertise.
NVIDIA may also develop or extend its platforms during the process.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said: “The greatest impact of generative AI is to revolutionise the life science and healthcare industry.
“Our collaboration to create Genentech’s next-generation AI platform will dramatically accelerate the pace of drug discovery and development.”
In a similar development, NVIDIA has partnered with India-based Wipro to help healthcare companies accelerate the adoption of generative gen AI through AI-driven strategies, products, and services.
Under the partnership, the Indian technology services and consulting company will use NVIDIA AI Enterprise software for healthcare insurance companies.
The software will help in the production of AI across its existing range of healthcare solutions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare, and Medicaid to enhance member experience, improve recruitment, and aid support claims adjudication.
