India's Mankind Pharma is turning to artificial intelligence in its search for new medicines.
On Wednesday, July 1, the company announced a strategic collaboration with Denovo Sciences to launch an AI-led drug discovery programme, according to a PTI report filed from New Delhi. The company called the partnership an important step in its research ambitions.
The goal, according to reporting carried by MSN, is to "revolutionize" how drugs are found and to significantly shorten development timelines. Traditional drug discovery is famously slow and expensive, often taking many years to move a candidate from the lab toward patients. Supporters of AI-driven approaches argue the technology can help scientists sift through vast numbers of molecular possibilities far faster than conventional methods.
The Mankind–Denovo deal was widely picked up across Indian business media, including The Economic Times and BusinessLine, signaling growing interest in AI's role in pharmaceuticals.
The announcement lands amid broader momentum for artificial intelligence in medicine. McKinsey & Company has published an explainer describing AI in life sciences as a technology "that could reinvent medicine." Elsewhere, coverage on Substack highlighted two new AI products aimed at improving cardiac care, a sign that the technology is being applied not just to discovering drugs but to treating patients as well.
The available reporting does not disclose financial terms of the Mankind–Denovo collaboration, specific disease targets, or timelines for results, so it remains to be seen how quickly the partnership will translate into candidate drugs.
Why it matters: if AI can meaningfully compress the years and costs involved in developing new medicines, deals like this one could reshape how quickly — and how affordably — new treatments reach the people who need them.