Drug Maker Novo Nordisk Working With 10 Indian AI Startups

Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk, which has grabbed global headlines for its weight loss drug Wegovy, has struck partnerships with 10 Indian artificial intelligence (AI) startups to streamline its operations. 

The company’s managing director (MD) for global business services John Dawber told Reuters that it is leveraging tools built by homegrown AI startups for tasks such as summarising documents, extracting insights and checking for editing errors.

Dawber added that “some of these AI tools” are being used across Novo Nordisk’s global operations. However, the report didn’t mention the names of AI startups.

He said that Novo’s medical writers are using AI to reduce the time needed for quality checks on regulatory documents. “It goes from 40 hours per document to about 40 minutes per document,” he added.

The drug maker is also open to partnering with more such AI startups in the country.

As per the report, Dawber expects the company’s Bengaluru centre to emerge as “an almost perfect mirror image” of Novo’s headquarters in Denmark in three years with respect to “handling data central to research and development”.

It is pertinent to note that the centre manages data collected on the safety and efficacy of the company’s drugs, which includes information related to clinical trials and reports of potential side effects.

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk plans to double down on the number of “global process leaders” based out of India over the next three to four years and increase its headcount in the country by 16% to 5,000 next year.

With the Indian AI ecosystem making rapid strides and attracting the interest of investors, partnerships like Novo Nordisk’s are expected to make way for more such collaborations with global players.

As per an Inc42 report, India is currently home to over 100 generative AI (GenAI) startups that raised over $600 Mn in funding between 2019 and first half (H1) of 2024. Leading from the front are the likes of Ola-owned GenAI unicorn Krutrim and SarvamAI. 

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