NVIDIA & Amgen Collaborate on AI-driven Drug Discovery

NVIDIA and Amgen partnered on AI project ‘Freyja’ at deCODE genetics in Iceland, advancing disease diagnostics with improved drug target discovery.

US-based technology giant NVIDIA has joined forces with biotechnology leader Amgen to revolutionise drug discovery through the development of generative AI models. The collaboration leverages NVIDIA's advanced AI technologies and Amgen's expertise in biotechnology.

Amgen is set to deploy the AI model-building platform, Freyja, at the deCODE genetics headquarters in Reykjavik, Iceland. With a primary focus on analysing extensive human datasets, Freyja aims to identify drug targets and biomarkers, offering invaluable insights for disease diagnostics, progression, and regression.

The collaboration involves the integration of NVIDIA's DGX SuperPOD data platform, consisting of 31 DGX X100 nodes and 248 H100 Tensor Core GPUs.This powerful computing setup aims to speed up the training of advanced AI models, facilitating swift progress in drug discovery.

More about DNVIDIA's GX SuperPOD Data Platform

NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD is an AI data centre infrastructure designed to deliver high performance for a diverse range of users & workloads. As a key component of the NVIDIA DGX platform, DGX SuperPOD empowers IT teams to seamlessly blend hybrid deployments while providing top-tier accelerated infrastructure. Its scalable performance is tailored to tackle the most demanding AI workloads.

In a shared statement alongside the announcement of this collaboration, David Reese, executive vice president & CTO at Amgen said, “For more than a decade, Amgen has been preparing for this hinge moment we are seeing in the industry, powered by the union of technology and biotechnology.”

Forecasted Growth in the AI Market

Per the GlobalData's Pharma Intelligence Center report, the AI market, valued at $81.3 billion in 2022, is projected to experience an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.2%.

By 2030, the market is forecasted to reach $908.7 billion, reinforcing the industry's confidence in AI's potential to reshape the landscape of healthcare and drug discovery.

In a recent collaboration, NVIDIA, a global leader in accelerated computing and AI, partnered with Genentech from the Roche Group. This alliance harnesses Genentech's rich biological datasets and AI capabilities, amplified by NVIDIA's accelerated computing on DGX Cloud. The shared goal is to fast-track drug discovery, marking another milestone in NVIDIA's dedication to shaping the future of healthcare through groundbreaking collaborations.

In another strategic alliance, NVIDIA collaborated with Bengaluru-based IT giant Wipro to integrate generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) into healthcare solutions. Leveraging the power of NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, this partnership aims to optimise AI production, boosting efficiency and intelligence across Wipro's healthcare portfolio.

In November 2023, Amgen partnered with India-headquartered L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) to develop software enhancing medical imaging for endoscopies. As part of this agreement, NVIDIA supplied its Holoscan software and NVIDIA IGX Orin hardware, showcasing the company's commitment to advancing medical imaging through AI technology. This collaboration with both the companies contributed to the field of drug discovery and medical imaging.

Founded in April, 1993, Nvidia Corporation is a key player in the American technology landscape. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company specialises in designing graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science, and system on a chip units (SoCs) for mobile computing and automotive markets. Renowned for its dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and software, Nvidia's professional GPUs are widely utilised in diverse fields such as architecture, engineering, media, automotive, scientific research, and manufacturing design.

Established in 1980, Amgen Inc, on the other hand, is a leading American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. Amgen is a major player in the biotechnology sector. Notable products include Enbrel for autoimmune diseases and Neulasta to prevent infections in chemotherapy patients, along with a portfolio featuring Evenity, Otezla, Prolia, Repatha, and Lumakras.