Boehringer Ingelheim and Microsoft have joined forces to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) could transform clinical research, with a focus on Digital Patient Twins that could help accelerate drug development and bring new therapies to patients sooner.
The strategic collaboration will investigate the potential of Digital Patient Twins — computational models of individual patients that use clinical and other relevant data to predict disease progression and how patients might respond under different scenarios.
The research will focus on disease-progression modelling, predictive outcome modelling and advanced clinical trial simulations. The companies will also assess whether these approaches could support synthetic or hybrid control arms, which use existing data, either alone or alongside data from participants in a clinical trial, as alternatives to conventional control groups.
If successful, the approach could reduce the number of patients needed in control groups, speed up clinical evidence generation and improve trial design. It could also help make clinical research more efficient and potentially enable patients to access innovative medicines sooner.
“The collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim brings together pharmaceutical and scientific expertise with Microsoft's capabilities in AI and engineering. Germany is home to world-class pharmaceutical research and development. Together, we want to explore how technology could open new opportunities for clinical research,” says Agnes Heftberger, Corporate Vice President and CEO of Microsoft Germany and Austria.
The partners will assess the scientific and technical feasibility of the approach through modelling, prototyping and evidence generation across multiple disease areas and therapeutic fields, beginning with lung health.
“Boehringer Ingelheim is developing the richest pipeline in its history, and it is our goal to make clinical research more responsive to patients’ unmet needs. Exploring AI-enabled approaches, including the future potential of Digital Patient Twins, could support more patient-centric, informed and efficient clinical research,” said Lykke Hinsch Gylvin, Chief Medical Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim.
“Crucially, scientific quality, patient safety and regulatory requirements must always be upheld. This partnership supports us in pursuing that ambition responsibly and in compliance with applicable requirements.”
The collaboration forms part of Boehringer Ingelheim's broader ambition to become a Frontier AI company across Human Pharma and Animal Health, embedding AI responsibly throughout its value chain.
Building on one of the pharmaceutical industry's largest Microsoft Copilot deployments, the company is combining broad employee access to AI tools with role-specific applications, skills development, governance and secure technology infrastructure.
“Successful AI adoption depends on more than technology alone,” said Harsha Deshmukh, Member of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim, responsible for IT and Global Business Services. “What matters is enabling our employees to use AI responsibly and unlock its potential through scalable solutions across the complete value chain and all business units.”
The partnership will also cover security and datacenter modernisation to strengthen the technology foundations needed for secure, resilient and future-ready AI innovation.
Beyond clinical research, the companies are exploring potential joint development projects in Animal Health, business processes and technology infrastructure.
