Drug discovery and development is an arduous, expensive process that usually results in failure. An estimated 90% of clinical drugs don’t make it to market, after an R&D process that can take as long as 15 years, and cost up to $2bn.

With AI, those numbers could be dramatically improved. Drug development could become more efficient, clinical trials could happen faster and production processes could be optimised so that every batch is just right. But to drive progress and unlock billions of dollars in value, the pharmaceutical sector needs to learn how to use AI-powered technologies at scale.

Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, is one company which recognises this. It recently announced the launch of a new digital manufacturing and supply (M&S) accelerator in Lyon, where Sanofi employees will use AI to find and scale new innovations that will deliver life-changing treatments to patients faster, sometimes in partnership with startups.

Daphné Leprince-Ringuet, Sifted’s senior French tech reporter, sat down with Emmanuel Frenehard, chief digital officer, Sanofi, and Brendan O’Callaghan, executive vice president for manufacturing and supply, Sanofi, to find out more.