Healthcare giant AstraZeneca has launched a partnership with technology firm Oracle to explore how AI can improve clinical trial recruitment, accelerate diagnosis and bring research insights more quickly into patient care.

AstraZeneca said the project combines its expertise in scientific research, clinical development and regulation with Oracle Health and Life Science's cloud infrastructure, real-world data and AI capabilities. The companies said the collaboration will focus on improving care pathways, clinical trial matching, drug safety monitoring and guideline-directed care.

The initiative aims to address longstanding challenges in healthcare, including delayed diagnoses, slow referrals and barriers to translating scientific discoveries into routine clinical practice. Initial projects will cover oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, respiratory conditions, immunology and rare diseases.

The collaboration will involve projects across the US, Europe and the Middle East, working with governments and healthcare providers under local regulatory frameworks. The first programme will be delivered in Abu Dhabi alongside healthcare company M42, where AI will be used to help identify patients with uncontrolled hypertension, support guideline-based treatment and improve recruitment into clinical trials.

The companies said the collaboration will use deidentified real-world data under privacy, security and governance frameworks, with AstraZeneca not receiving any patient-identifiable information. Each proposed project will undergo separate legal, regulatory and ethical review before proceeding.

“This unique collaboration brings leaders in healthcare and AI together at a global scale to accelerate the journey from the discovery of medicine to patient care,” said Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer at AstraZeneca. “Combining AstraZeneca's world class science with Oracle's deep data and technology expertise, we can help clinicians identify patients sooner, optimise clinical trials, and generate evidence continuously across the lifecycle of a medicine.”

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