While headlines have been relatively sparse to kick off the new year, AI research partnerships have emerged as a common theme. In addition to a previously reported deal between Boehringer Ingelheim and Variant Bio, Pfizer has now also tossed its hat into the ring by striking a deal with Boltz, an applied AI research lab.

Boltz announced the strategic collaboration with Pfizer on January 8th, 2026. The partnership aims to leverage Boltz’s foundation models to aid in the discovery and development of pharmacological compounds. While financial terms were not specified in the press release announcing the partnership, the release indicated that Pfizer will retain full ownership of all compounds discovered or developed with the support of the Boltz models.

Boltz is the developer of the open-source biomolecular foundation models Boltz-2 and BoltzGen. According to the press release, the partnership aims to combine these models with Pfizer’s catalog of historical data to create state-of-the-art, exclusive models for structure prediction, small-molecule affinity, and biologics design. Additionally, Boltz scientists will work with Pfizer’s discovery teams to build custom models and workflows for various programs.

“Pfizer scientists have been some of the earliest adopters of our open-source models and members of our community – with users across modalities and disease areas,” said Gabriele Corso, CEO, Boltz, in the release. “This partnership helps us take our platform to a new level in terms of accuracy, performance and integration. We are excited to see the impact this collaboration will have on Pfizer’s already world-class preclinical development capabilities.”

In addition to Boehringer and Pfizer, Woojung Bio, a contract research organization, also announced an AI research deal with Xellar Biosystems this January. This deal will see Xellar contribute its AI-enabled organ-on-a-chip platform, computer vision-based analysis pipelines, and advanced data analytics capabilities to aid in Woojung’s development of differentiated preclinical research solutions

“This collaboration represents an important milestone in expanding the global application of our organ-on-a-chip and AI technologies,” said Xin Xie, CEO, Cellar Biosystems, in the release. “Working with Woojung Bio enables us to more closely connect advanced in vitro platforms with real-world translational research needs, and to deliver greater value to partners in the life sciences ecosystem.”