Merck Enters into Collaboration with Mayo Clinic to Advance AI-Enabled Drug Discovery
Thursday, February 19, 2026
Merck has entered into a research and development agreement with Mayo Clinic to support AI-enabled drug discovery and precision medicine initiatives.
The collaboration will combine Mayo Clinic’s platform infrastructure, along with its clinical and genomic datasets, with Merck’s efforts to apply artificial intelligence in virtual cell technologies. The aim is to improve disease understanding, enhance target identification and support early-stage development decisions.
Through the Mayo Clinic Platform, which securely integrates data from its US operations and international partners, Merck will gain access to de-identified clinical and multimodal datasets. These include laboratory data, medical imaging, clinical records and molecular information. The agreement also provides access to advanced AI and machine learning tools, as well as scientific and clinical expertise to help scale research solutions.
The partnership marks Mayo Clinic’s first strategic collaboration of this scale with a global biopharmaceutical company. Under the agreement, Merck will use Mayo Clinic’s multimodal data to validate AI models and translate research findings into practical drug discovery and development strategies.
The initial focus will be on high-need therapeutic areas across three specialties: gastroenterology, with an emphasis on inflammatory bowel disease; dermatology, focusing on atopic dermatitis; and neurology, targeting multiple sclerosis.
The agreement reflects Merck’s wider investment in AI and machine learning technologies across computational and spatial biology, AI foundation models and real-world data. Both organisations aim to apply advanced technologies in a structured and evidence-based manner to strengthen drug development and improve patient outcomes.
Source: merck.com
