By Sriparna Roy
Oct 21 (Reuters) – Life sciences firm Danaher is well positioned to benefit as drugmakers increasingly adopt artificial intelligence to develop new medicines, its chief executive said on Wednesday, calling it a major long-term opportunity.
Interest in AI-driven drug discovery has surged as companies turn to machine learning models to identify drug targets, design molecules and streamline research. The technology is widely expected to shorten development timelines and improve research productivity.
“We see AI driven drug discovery as a significant long-term opportunity for us,” CEO Julie Montgomery said on a post-earnings conference call.
“We believe that Danaher is uniquely positioned to help shape this market. Frankly, because we have all of the building blocks.”
Danaher said its extensive portfolio of instruments, molecular devices and technologies could provide a competitive advantage in the emerging AI-driven drug discovery market. It is accelerating AI deployment across the enterprise and establishing AI partnerships.
“We have the scale that makes us a priority for the Frontier Labs. So while it’s not material today, we have started to see a modest benefit to our orders and revenue, and frankly, it’s at the forefront of every customer conversation I have in life science,” Montgomery said, adding that the company aims to be a leading partner as its customers adopt AI.
Earlier this month, Danaher said it plans to launch its first AI-powered autonomous research lab by early 2027, aiming to design, build and test new antibodies up to eight times faster than conventional methods. It also announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to help accelerate the pace of scientific discovery.
Danaher said it is seeing growing demand for tools that help automate laboratory processes and research workflows across its life sciences businesses. It also said its biotechnology and diagnostics platforms could help produce therapies more efficiently and support more precise treatment decisions.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
