GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) and Tempus, a US-based precision medicine company, have entered into a three-year collaboration agreement that provides GSK with access to Tempus' AI-enabled platform, including its library of de-identified patient data. Through its leading Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) capability, GSK will work together with Tempus to improve clinical trial design, speed up enrolment and identify drug targets. This will contribute to GSK’s R&D success rate and provide patients with more personalised treatment faster.
The new collaboration builds from the existing relationship between the companies that began in 2020 on clinical trial enrolment of patients with certain types of cancer. It will now expand GSK’s access to de-identified patient data bringing greater scale and detail. Tempus' dataset draws from its work with over 40% of oncologists in the U.S. at academic medical centres and community hospitals.
Tony Wood, Chief Scientific Officer, GSK, said: "This collaboration will provide GSK with unique insights to discover better medicines and transform drug discovery. Tempus complements the work our team is already doing at the intersection of genomics and machine learning across both early discovery and clinical trials."
GSK's investments in human genetics, functional genomics and AI/ML have enabled the company to more than double the number of targets in the early portfolio since 2017 and have increased the proportion of those with genetic support beyond 70%. Medicines with genetic validation are twice as likely to become registered medicines. As a leader in AI-enabled precision medicine, Tempus has developed a platform that provides a rapid way of testing complex biomarker hypotheses. Powered by machine learning, this is an important component of selecting patients who could benefit from candidate medicines in GSK's portfolio in the future.
Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO, Tempus, said: "GSK's data-first approach to therapeutic research aligns with our own, and we believe that Tempus has the resources and capabilities to complement GSK's dedication to data science, in a way others can’t given the breadth and depth of our platform. We both share a commitment to providing patients with more personalised therapeutic options to help them live longer and healthier lives."
GSK and Tempus currently collaborate on an open label phase II study, which applies an innovative, data-driven approach designed to accelerate and streamline study timelines. This includes expediting the protocol development and intelligent site selection in under 60 days and enrolling its initial patients within three months of the study launch.
The expanded collaboration has a minimum financial commitment over three years, for which GSK made a $70 million initial payment. GSK then has an option to extend for two additional years.
About Tempus
Tempus is a technology company advancing precision medicine through the practical application of artificial intelligence in healthcare. With one of the world’s largest libraries of clinical and molecular data, and an operating system to make that data accessible and useful, Tempus enables physicians to make real-time, data-driven decisions to deliver personalized patient care and in parallel facilitates discovery, development and delivery of optimal therapeutics. The goal is for each patient to benefit from the treatment of others who came before by providing physicians with tools that learn as the company gathers more data.
About GSK.ai
With more than 120 AI/ML experts, GSK's dedicated AI /ML team is the largest in-house strategic function in the biopharma industry and it is delivering a step-change in increasing R&D productivity, working closely with GSK's Research division. GSK teams are generating more data every quarter than in the company's entire history. At GSK, we believe AI has the potential to transform R&D because it enables our scientists to work better, faster and smarter so data helps us find the right medicine, using the right modality, for the right patient.
About GSK
GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together.