Palantir Partners with Merck for Cancer Data Analytics

Palantir Technologies announced its partnership with German Lab supplies company Merck KGaA to bring cancer data analytics tools to research centers. This partnership facilitates the firms’ efforts to forge a new presence in health care.  Dubbed Syntropy, it will combine Palantir’s Foundry data platform with Merck’s Life Science business, MilliporeSigma. Syntropy will help medical researchers structure, analyze, and share data from a diverse sources and with external partners.

“Our customers will pay a license fee for a software, enabling them to aggregate and analyze data from highly disparate sources,” Merck Chief Executive Stefan Oschmann says. JV will not buy or sell collected the data.

See also: What is the potential for real-time analytics in healthcare

Palantir became known after helping the U.S. government track down Osama bin Laden, the man who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. They conduct classified analytics for defense and intelligence agencies and private sector companies like Airbus.

For this new project, the company will focus on clinical trial and early-stage research data for Merck. While the two companies are exclusive partners within the parameters of the joint venture, Palantir says it has other healthcare-related customers as well.

“When we choose partners, be it in government or the private sector, we are on their side and want to grow a business together and not with five others. Also, in this case, we have no intention to handle it any differently,” says Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander Karp.

Although the companies chose not to disclose the deal’s financial terms, each says it will hold a 50% stake. Palantir is considering an initial public offering worth as much as $41 billion.