Almirall’s chief executive officer, Carlos Gallardo, and Alberto Granados, country general manager of Microsoft Spain
Almirall has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to accelerate digitalisation and technology innovation within medical dermatology.
The three-year collaboration, which will combine Almirall’s research and development knowledge in drug discovery with Microsoft’s digital technologies, is aimed at advancing the research of medical solutions for dermatological diseases, developing next-generation personalised drugs, and accelerating Almirall’s overall digital transformation.
Though financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, Almirall outlined that it will work with Microsoft Industry Solutions, in collaboration with some Microsoft partners, to establish a joint ‘Digital Office’ to build on its own unified data platform, and drive digital innovation in drug discovery and development by employing generative artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics technologies.
Almirall’s chief executive officer, Carlos Gallardo, said: “This agreement with Microsoft is a significant advancement in our digital transformation to achieve our goal of delivering novel treatment options for patients. It will empower us to apply [the] latest technologies to transform our ways of working and accelerate drug discovery.”
Throughout the collaboration, Almirall added that it will “establish a new approach to technology-aided data management to optimise access to high-quality data,” including data governance, quality processes and digital identity management.
Also commenting on the alliance, Alberto Granados, country general manager of Microsoft Spain, said: “Through this strategic partnership, Microsoft and its Industry Solutions organisation will collaborate with Almirall… to revolutionise dermatological treatments and provide patients with the best possible solutions by leveraging Microsoft cutting-edge technologies of advanced analytics and generative AI to foster innovation in drug discovery and development.”
The partnership comes just a few months after Almirall and Absci announced a drug discovery partnership aimed at developing and commercialising AI-designed treatments for dermatological diseases.
The collaboration, announced in November, combines Almirall’s dermatological capabilities with Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform, which the generative AI company says “unlocks the potential to accelerate time to clinic and increase the probability of success by simultaneously optimising multiple drug characteristics important to both development and therapeutic benefit”.
More recently, in December, Almirall entered into a multi-target alliance with etherna to discover and develop new mRNA-based therapies to treat dermatological diseases, including non-melanoma skin cancer.