Novo and Anthropic have announced a collaboration focused on applying Anthropic’s Claude AI models to drug discovery, research and software development, extending the pharmaceutical company’s use of artificial intelligence across its operations.
Under the partnership, the companies will identify drug-discovery challenges faced by Novo scientists and computational teams and develop targeted AI tools designed to support scientific workflows and biological reasoning. Novo will initially test Claude Science within selected research and development workflows, concentrating on scientific problems where the companies believe their respective expertise can be combined.
The pharmaceutical company also plans to use Anthropic’s models for AI-assisted software development as it expands the application of AI beyond research activities. According to Novo, the collaboration incorporates data-governance controls and human oversight intended to ensure that AI systems are deployed in accordance with its ethical and compliance standards.
"This partnership is another testament to our ambition to become the world’s most AI-driven healthcare company, building on Novo’s current AI initiatives with other technology partners," Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo, said in a statement.
"Joining forces with Anthropic will supercharge our R&D organization and help us on our mission to bring new, transformative health solutions to people living with chronic diseases."
Anthropic CEO and cofounder Dario Amodei said the companies see potential for increasingly capable AI systems to accelerate biological and medical research.
"AI’s increasing capability brings with it the potential to compress a century’s worth of biological and medical breakthroughs into a decade," Amodei said. "By giving leading researchers access to safe, capable and trusted frontier models, we can shorten research timelines, improve outcomes and discover medicines and treatments that significantly improve human life."
The agreement forms part of Novo’s broader expansion of AI partnerships during 2026. In April, the company partnered with OpenAI to apply AI models across drug discovery, manufacturing, commercial operations and supply-chain management.
Novo subsequently partnered with H1 in August to develop AI models supporting drug discovery and clinical trial activities, including trial design, enrollment and site selection. It has also expanded its relationship with Amazon Web Services to establish an AI drug-discovery hub in London focused on analyzing genomic, imaging and clinical data, identifying potential drug targets and automating research workflows.
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