On October 22, 2026 Boehringer Ingelheim and Microsoft reported a strategic collaboration that aims to bring safe and effective therapies to patients sooner fueled by AI. The collaboration will focus on jointly investigating the potential of Digital Patient Twins in clinical development. Digital Patient Twins are computational representations of individual patients that use clinical and other relevant data to predict how a disease might progress and how outcomes could evolve under different scenarios.
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The joint research will explore disease-progression modelling, predictive outcome modelling and advanced trial simulation, including whether these approaches could support synthetic or hybrid control arms, which are alternatives to a conventional clinical control group, using existing data, and in the case of hybrid control arms, a combination of both.
In the end, the research may help reduce the number of patients required in control groups, accelerate the generation of clinical evidence, and improve clinical trial design. This way patients could potentially get faster access to innovative medicines, allow more trial participants to benefit from new treatments and increase the efficiency of drug development. Using clinical and other relevant data, these computational models may improve clinical research and evidence generation, with the aim of bringing new therapies to patients faster.
"The collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim brings together pharmaceutical and scientific expertise with Microsoft’s capabilities in AI and engineering. Germany is home to world-class pharmaceutical research and development. Together, we want to explore how technology could open new opportunities for clinical research," says Agnes Heftberger, Corporate Vice President and CEO of Microsoft Germany and Austria.
Boehringer Ingelheim and Microsoft intend to assess scientific and technical feasibility through modeling, prototyping and evidence generation across multiple disease and therapeutic areas, starting with lung health.
"Boehringer Ingelheim is developing the richest pipeline in its history, and it is our goal to make clinical research more responsive to patients’ unmet needs. Exploring AI-enabled approaches, including the future potential of Digital Patient Twins, could support more patient-centric, informed and efficient clinical research," said Dr. Lykke Hinsch Gylvin, Chief Medical Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim. "Crucially, scientific quality, patient safety and regulatory requirements must always be upheld. This partnership supports us in pursuing that ambition responsibly and in compliance with applicable requirements."
AI transformation across the entire workforce
Boehringer Ingelheim aims to become a Frontier AI company in Human Pharma and Animal Health by embedding AI responsibly across its value chain. Building on one of the largest Microsoft Copilot deployments in the pharmaceutical industry, the company is combining broad employee access with role-based use cases, skills development, governance and secure technology foundations.
"Successful AI adoption depends on more than technology alone," said Harsha Deshmukh, Member of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim, responsible for IT and Global Business Services. "What matters is enabling our employees to use AI responsibly and unlock its potential through scalable solutions across the complete value chain and all business units."
The partnership also encompasses security and datacenter modernization, supporting a secure, resilient and future-ready technology foundation for AI-enabled innovation. The partners are also exploring potential co-development projects in other areas, including Animal Health, business processes and technology infrastructure.
(Press release, Boehringer Ingelheim, OCT 22, 2026, View Source [SID1234673675])