The companies will explore AI and health-data tools for clinical-trial recruitment, earlier diagnosis and safety monitoring, with an initial Abu Dhabi program involving M42.
AstraZeneca and Oracle announced a global collaboration on October 20 to test how AI and real-world health data could connect scientific research with clinical care. The companies plan to explore ways to identify potential clinical-trial participants, support earlier diagnosis and monitor drug safety. Their agreement is non-binding, and they did not disclose financial terms.
The first program is planned for Abu Dhabi with healthcare company M42, focusing on hypertension care and clinical research. AstraZeneca says the work is intended to help clinical teams identify people with uncontrolled high blood pressure, apply care guidelines and improve recruitment for trials. The broader collaboration is expected to span projects in the United States, the Middle East and Europe, across areas including cancer, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, respiratory and immunology conditions, and rare diseases.
The companies say they will use de-identified real-world data under privacy, security and governance arrangements. AstraZeneca will not receive patient-identifiable information. Each proposed project must undergo separate legal, privacy, regulatory, ethical and institutional review before it proceeds.
The partnership reflects a practical focus for healthcare AI: using clinical and research data to help care teams find eligible patients and put evidence into practice, rather than announcing a new drug-discovery model. Whether the approach improves recruitment or care will depend on the results of the Abu Dhabi project and any subsequent pilots; the companies have not yet reported outcomes.
AstraZeneca and Oracle also plan to establish shared governance, reusable technical components and agreed measures for evaluating results. Those measures are intended to inform whether successful approaches could be extended to other diseases and regions.