Novo Nordisk taps OpenAI

Novo Nordisk said Tuesday it is partnering with OpenAI to use artificial intelligence across drug discovery, manufacturing and commercial operations. (reuters.com) The Danish drugmaker said the deal is meant to help employees analyze large datasets, identify promising drug candidates and shorten the path from research to patient use. Novo said the partnership starts with pilot programs in research, development and manufacturing. (cnbc.com) Novo already offered employees a custom version of ChatGPT, and a company spokesperson said the new agreement goes further than that earlier internal rollout. Novo and OpenAI did not disclose financial terms. (moneycontrol.com) Drug discovery is the process of sifting through huge amounts of biology and chemistry data to find molecules worth testing in labs and clinical trials. Novo said OpenAI’s tools will also be used beyond research, including supply, production and commercial work. (biospace.com) The timing is tied to a tougher obesity-drug race. Reuters reported that Novo has fallen behind Eli Lilly in the weight-loss market, even as Wegovy and Ozempic remain two of the best-known brands in the category. (reuters.com) That pressure has intensified this month after Eli Lilly won United States approval for its obesity pill Foundayo, setting up a new contest with Novo’s own oral Wegovy product. (statnews.com) Novo has been building out artificial-intelligence partnerships for more than a year. Bloomberg said the OpenAI tie-up adds to a research-focused collaboration with Nvidia announced in June 2025. (bloomberg.com) Novo said the OpenAI partnership includes “strict data governance and human oversight” for how the systems are used. That language addresses a basic problem in drug development: software can help narrow choices, but people still have to decide what gets tested, manufactured and submitted to regulators. (biospace.com) Investors welcomed the announcement in early trading. Novo’s United States-listed shares were up about 3% in premarket trading Tuesday morning, according to Yahoo Finance and Google Finance data. (finance.yahoo.com) (google.com) For Novo, the bet is that faster analysis and faster internal decisions can help it find the next obesity or diabetes medicine sooner. For OpenAI, it is another test of whether generative artificial intelligence can move from office software into tightly regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals. (wsj.com)