Merck and the Mayo Clinic announced an R&D collaboration to combine Mayo Clinic Platform clinical and genomic datasets with Merck’s AI‑enabled virtual cell technologies to accelerate target identification and drug discovery in inflammatory bowel disease, atopic dermatitis and multiple sclerosis. Merck gains access to Mayo’s registries, biorepositories and computational tools to validate AI models and inform discovery strategies. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal reflects Big Pharma’s ongoing strategy to integrate high‑quality clinical datasets with in‑house AI platforms to de‑risk early discovery and improve translational relevance.