Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) and OpenAI Partner to Accelerate Drug Development with AI
- Oct 16
- 2 min read
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), identified as the world leader in serving science with annual revenue exceeding $40 billion, announced a major collaboration with OpenAI today. The partnership centers on integrating advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities across Thermo Fisher’s operations, product development, and customer services.
The core mission of this strategic alliance is to significantly accelerate drug development with AI and reduce costs for pharmaceutical companies. The stated goal is enabling customers to bring medicines to patients faster and more cost-effectively.
A high-impact initial focus area for the collaboration is Thermo Fisher’s PPD™ clinical research business, a unit known for conducting clinical trials for pharmaceutical customers. Thermo Fisher plans to embed OpenAI's Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) directly into this segment. This integration is specifically designed to reduce clinical trial cycle times significantly and speed up the process of bringing new medicines to market, thereby creating meaningful value for the industry.
Furthermore, the combined expertise of OpenAI’s capabilities and Thermo Fisher’s specialized knowledge will be leveraged to help identify therapies that are unlikely to succeed more quickly. This early identification allows customers to redirect valuable investment and resources toward more promising opportunities.
The collaboration extends AI integration into Thermo Fisher’s Accelerator™ Drug Development solution, which is an end-to-end approach encompassing phases from early development through clinical research (Phase I–III), clinical manufacturing, supply, and commercialization. This comprehensive solution aims to deliver enhanced speed, simplicity, and scalability for customers.
Beyond external customer solutions, Thermo Fisher plans to launch "frontier AI" internally by deploying ChatGPT Enterprise for its employees. This move is intended to make it easier for colleagues to build confidence and fluency with these powerful tools.
Marc Casper, Chairman, President, and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific, emphasized the revolutionary potential of the collaboration, stating that "AI is shaping the future of science" and acts as a "powerful catalyst to accelerate scientific advancement" when combined with the company’s mission to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. He added that together, they are "building an ecosystem that accelerates scientific breakthroughs".
Brad Lightcap, Chief Operating Officer at OpenAI, echoed this sentiment, noting that Thermo Fisher plays a massive role in advancing science. Lightcap believes that by "directly powering Thermo Fisher workflows," frontier AI can help "cut through complexity, speed up breakthroughs, and bring real impact to patients' lives".
Thermo Fisher, whose brands include Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, and PPD, confirmed that the announcement was made via a company press release. The release included customary forward-looking statement disclaimers, noting that actual results may differ materially from the projected impacts of the collaboration. Following the announcement, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO) stock was noted trading at $537.58, up 1.84%.
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