Owkin

Owkin is a French-American artificial intelligence and biotech company that aims to identify new treatments, optimize clinical trials and develop AI diagnostics.[1][2] The company uses multimodal patient data from academic institutions and hospitals to train its AI models for drug discovery, development, and diagnostics. Owkin has collaborated with pharmaceutical companies around the world to improve their therapeutic programs.[3]

History

Owkin was founded in Paris in 2016, by Thomas Clozel, a clinical research doctor and son of Jean-Paul and Martine Clozel founders of Swiss biotech Actelion, and Gilles Wainrib, a professor of Artificial Intelligence.[4]

Owkin has raised over $255 million and became a ‘unicorn’ – a startup valued at more than $1 billion – in November 2021 through a $180 million investment from French biopharma company

Partnerships

Amgen

Owkin collaborated with Amgen to test the ability of AI to improve cardiovascular prediction.[3]

AstraZeneca

In 2024, Owkin and AstraZeneca partnered to develop an AI-powered tool specifically designed to prescreen for gBRCA mutations using digital pathology slides.[18] Identifying mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes plays an important role in identifying risk for developing certain types of cancers, including breast and ovarian. The tool aims to speed up and increase access to gBRCS testing.[19][18]

Sanofi

In November 2021 Owkin entered a strategic alliance with Sanofi.[20] The alliance included a $180 million equity investment, and a $90 million discovery and development partnership focused on Sanofi's oncology efforts in four different cancers.[21] Sanofi used Owkin's technology to find new biomarkers and therapeutic targets, build prognostic models, and predict response to treatment.[22]

Bristol-Myers Squibb

In June 2022, Owkin entered a strategic alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb to help them design potentially more precise and efficient clinical trials.[22] The collaboration initially focused on cardiovascular disease, and has the potential to expand into projects in other therapeutic areas.[23]

MSD

In December 2023, Owkin entered a strategic alliance with MSD to develop and commercialize AI-powered digital pathology diagnostics for the EU market that could be used to identify patients suitable for immunotherapies.[24]

Servier

In October 2023, Owkin and Servier started a multi-year partnership focused on developing “better-targeted therapies” in oncology and other disease areas.[25] The partnership's first two projects were in translational medicine and digital pathology.[25]

MOSAIC

MOSAIC was formed by Owkin, Nanostring Technologies, the University of Pittsburgh, Gustave Roussy, Lausanne University Hospital, Uniklinikum Erlangen/Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.[26][27] It uses spatial omics, multimodal patient data, and artificial intelligence, and aims to “offer unprecedented information on the structure of tumors” and guide new treatments.[27][26]

native name lang	français
industry	Biotechnology
founded	August 3, 2016
founder	Thomas Clozel, Gilles Wainrib
location city	Paris
location country	France
area served	US, France, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Spain
products	MSIntuit CRC, RlapsRisk BC
services	AI Drug Discovery, AI Drug Development, AI Diagnostics
num employees	350
num employees year	2023
website	https://owkin.com

History

Technologies

Agentic AI

MOSAIC

OwkinZero

Federated learning

Transfer learning

Products and Services

KPro

MSIntuit CRC

Dx RlapsRisk BC

Partnerships

Amgen

AstraZeneca

Sanofi

Bristol-Myers Squibb

MSD

Servier

MOSAIC

Publications

Awards

References