Novo Nordisk is aiming to slash the time it takes to bring new drugs to market by up to two-thirds using AI, a top executive said, as the Danish drugmaker looks to regain momentum in the booming obesity drugs market.
"Historically, from 'last patient, last visit' to first filing might have been a year and a half. What we're able to do now by implementing AI is bring that time down by months," John Dawber, managing director for global business services, told a Reuters summit on Friday.
The Danish drugmaker is deploying AI across critical parts of the launch process, including drafting regulatory documents, analysing safety data and supporting commercial analytics for both marketed drugs and those in clinical trials.
The push reflects a broader industry shift, with drugmakers increasingly betting on AI to speed up research, streamline their workflow and cut costs.
Industry forecasts suggest machine learning could halve early-stage development timelines within the next three to five years.
Novo is targeting deeper gains, with Dawber saying rapid advances in AI tools, now embedded widely across its India operations, could accelerate the timeline more sharply.
INDIA TAKES CENTRE STAGE
Novo's Bengaluru centre is playing an increasingly central role in global drug launches, handling a growing share of preparatory work, including for its recently launched oral obesity pill in the United States.
"A good proportion of the work for any market (launch) would be done out of the India centre. There's probably not a medicine launched anywhere in the world that hasn't had a thumbprint of Bangalore on it," Dawber said.
Activities ranging from clinical data analysis and regulatory submissions to commercial planning are now increasingly executed out of India.
Despite the expanding scope, Dawber expects the company to be "conservative" while hiring amid a wider restructuring.
He expects Novo's global business services unit to end the year with about 4,000 employees. In an earlier interview, he had said he expected the unit to have 5,000 employees by 2025.
Dawber acknowledged that the goal is now "too ambitious" even looking out to 2027 and added Novo was instead focused on hiring the right people for the right roles as it scales AI-led operations, rather than rapidly expanding headcount.
