Novo Nordisk has partnered with tech giant OpenAI to expedite its drug development efforts, as the Danish pharma looks to fend off stiff competition from obesity market rival Eli Lilly.
Through this collaboration, Novo will incorporate OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools into its obesity and diabetes drug development operations – employing the technology to identify new candidates, analyse complex datasets and shorten timelines to commercialisation.
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Alongside its new role in drug discovery and development, Novo will enhance the use of OpenAI’s technology within its manufacturing and distribution operations, while also incorporating this AI tool into its supply chain.
Novo Nordisk will initially introduce OpenAI’s technology to the business through a pilot programme spanning its R&D, manufacturing and commercial divisions, with full integration expected by the end of 2026.
During the launch period, OpenAI will also take the reins on boosting AI literacy across Novo’s global employee base, which the Danish pharma says will allow for the ethical and compliant use of this technology.
Novo Nordisk is one of several pharma companies to forge an alliance with OpenAI in recent years, with players like Sanofi, Moderna, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Eli Lilly also inking deals with the tech giant.
However, partnerships are not the only way that tech companies are now embedding themselves in the healthcare industry, as both OpenAI and Anthropic have debuted their own respective large language models (LLMs) to assist healthcare providers, payers and patients.
AI grabs pharma’s attention
Like many businesses in the pharma realm, Novo has hedged its bets on AI to support drug discovery through previous initiatives, which saw the company employ the technology to enhance screening throughput.
However, its staunch market rival, Eli Lilly, has had a similar idea, as the Indiana-based pharma has been significantly scaling the use of AI across its wider business. According to GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center, Lilly has signed 16 AI-based deals since 2025, with notable examples being its $1bn partnership with NVIDIA and a $2.75bn deal with Insilico Medicine.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
While Lilly may be posing a challenge to Novo’s initial obesity market reign, the latter’s CEO, Mike Doustdar, noted that its OpenAI collaboration will constitute an “important step” in positioning the company to lead in the “next era of healthcare”.
Meanwhile, AI is also taking the fancy of life science investors, with GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center revealing that the total value of venture financing deals saw a 48% uptick in 2025 compared with the previous year.
