Sanofi is supercharging its artificial intelligence capabilities. The French pharma is investing $294 million to expand its global AI center of excellence in Toronto, kicking off a scale-up of the digital infrastructure it built at the Canadian hub four years ago.
The expansion, supported by an up-to-$5 million conditional grant from the Invest Ontario Fund, is expected to create 50 high-skilled jobs in AI, machine learning and data science by 2028, according to a May 4 release.
This builds on a base of more than 150 roles already established at the site across areas of expertise like cloud computing, data engineering, software development, bioinformatics and pharmaceutical data science. The new employees will help design and deploy AI tools throughout the Sanofi organization in drug discovery, manufacturing and commercial operations.
“AI is woven into the fabric of how we discover, develop, produce, launch, and support innovative therapies at Sanofi,” Emmanuel Frenehard, Sanofi’s chief digital officer, said in a statement. “Our Toronto AI COE exemplifies how we’re harnessing artificial intelligence, accelerating our mission to halve the time from discovery to delivery of innovative treatments. Our investments in Canada are building the foundation for the next generation of breakthrough medicines and vaccines.”
Sanofi is expanding its Toronto AI site thanks to “local biopharma expertise and a world-class AI talent tool,” as well as partnership with the province of Ontario, Dimitrije Jankovic, Sanofi’s global head of digital strategy and operation, said in the release.
Sanofi’s move marks the latest in a series of major investments by Big Pharma as the industry races to integrate AI into all aspects of their operations.
Just last month, Merck & Co. inked a $1 billion partnership with Google Cloud to establish an agentic AI ecosystem across the New Jersey pharma’s R&D, manufacturing, commercial and corporate functions.
The two obesity and diabetes leaders, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, have also teamed up with AI tech giants. Last month, Novo unveiled a partnership with OpenAI to integrate AI into the Danish company’s “everyday work,” according to Novo CEO Mike Doustdar.
Earlier this year, Lilly debuted a supercomputer built in collaboration Nvidia, with whom the Indianapolis pharma is also forming an AI co-innovation lab in the Bay Area. Lilly has further signed multiple AI drug discovery partnerships, including a pact with Profluent Bio targeting kilobase-scale DNA editing in genetic medicines and a potential $2.75 billion deal with Insilico Medicine focused on oral therapeutics.
Swiss pharma Roche recently announced a massive digital push of its own, deploying another 2,176 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs to create what it calls the industry’s largest AI factory.
Sanofi’s latest investment in its Toronto hub comes about half a year after it teamed up a Canadian software company called BenchSci, which provides an AI copilot called ASCEND that combines public scientific information with proprietary internal data to produce knowledge graphs that scientists can use to better understand disease biology.
In addition to its own AI drug discovery pacts, Sanofi has used AI to create “digital twins,” or virtual patients, to assist in the assessments of the safety and efficacy of drug candidates. Data from digital twins helped Sanofi win an FDA pediatric label for its enzyme replacement therapy Xenpozyme.
Sanofi might see even deeper integration with AI under a new leadership. Belén Garijo officially took over the Sanofi CEO role last week, coming from her previous job as CEO of Merck KGaA, which boasts a large electronics business that supplies materials and solutions for AI and other tech industries.