Merck & Mayo Clinic Enter AI-Focused R&D Collaboration for Drug Discovery

The collaboration will combine Mayo Clinic’s clinical insights and data infrastructure with Merck’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, including its work in virtual cell technologies.

Merck & Co., Inc. and Mayo Clinic have entered into a research and development collaboration aimed at integrating artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and multimodal clinical data into drug discovery and early development programs.

Under the agreement, Merck will leverage Mayo Clinic’s Platform architecture, including de-identified clinical and genomic datasets, to support AI-enabled research models designed to enhance disease understanding and target identification.

The collaboration will combine Mayo Clinic’s clinical insights and data infrastructure with Merck’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, including its work in virtual cell technologies.

The initiative marks Mayo Clinic’s first strategic collaboration of this scale with a global biopharmaceutical company. Through the Mayo Clinic Platform_Orchestrate program, Merck will gain access to clinical expertise, multimodal datasets, registries, biorepositories, and AI-enabled analytics tools within a secure data environment. The multimodal data include laboratory results, medical imaging, clinical notes, and molecular data intended to support model validation and translational research strategies.

Robert M. Davis, chairman and CEO of Merck, said integrating high-quality clinical data with AI-enabled insights is intended to improve target identification and increase the probability of success across development programs. Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, said the collaboration will combine platform-based data and clinical expertise with biopharmaceutical R&D capabilities to accelerate innovation in drug development.

The collaboration will initially focus on three therapeutic areas where advanced analytics and multimodal approaches are expected to support development of tailored therapies: gastroenterology, specifically inflammatory bowel disease; dermatology, with a focus on atopic dermatitis; and neurology, targeting multiple sclerosis.

The agreement builds on Merck’s broader investments in AI and machine learning-enabled discovery, including computational and spatial biology, foundation models, and real-world data applications. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Both organizations stated the partnership will apply AI-driven approaches within evidence-based drug development frameworks, with an emphasis on early-stage research and validation.

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