Having led $30bn of acquisitions of companies at Sanofi, the new challenge for its former global head of partnering is to help make Owkin, “the most disruptive AI biotech company in the world,” he tells Scrip.

The cost of rare diseases to patients and society at large is 10 times higher than for many of the biggest mass market diseases combined. With 95% of rare diseases lacking a treatment or cure, there is an economic imperative for policymakers to keep encouraging pharmaceutical companies to develop more orphan drug treatments. In Vivo looks at the US and EU regulatory impetus to keep rare diseases open for innovation. 

Deal Snapshot: The companies first partnered in January 2019, with a focus on more than 20 diseases. The renewed deal will support development of additional disease models using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Accenture released its Life Sciences Technology Vision 2022 report, including a survey of biopharma execs on trends like synthetic data and quantum computing.