Anthropic said in a research post published Tuesday that its life sciences team has spent several months in research partnerships with six organizations developing medicines: BigHat Biosciences, Bristol Myers Squibb, Divergence Labs, Enveda, Generate Biomedicines and The Column Group. It also said it has begun drug discovery efforts of its own, including programs for rare childhood forms of muscular dystrophy. Anthropic described the work as early and mostly preclinical, meaning for the most part it has not reached human testing. The post describes no approved drug, and the results are reported by Anthropic and its partners.
On Generate Biomedicines, Anthropic said six scientists used Claude Code to propose designs for one part of a CAR T-cell therapy’s genetic instructions. One design was about 70% shorter than the standard version and, in lab tests, let immune cells make roughly 10 times as many receptors. For Divergence Labs, Anthropic said Claude, “largely autonomously,” generated roughly 35,000 antibody designs in about a month for a food allergy program; early tests found three designs that bound IgE and 20 that dislodged it.
For BigHat, Anthropic said the lab made and tested about 1,010 variants in about 10 weeks, and the best bound more than 10 times more tightly. BigHat’s own post gives different figures: 1,232 antibodies synthesized and tested over seven design rounds in 10 weeks, and variants of both antibodies that bound their targets up to nine times more tightly. Neither post explains the difference.
At Enveda, Anthropic said Claude reviewing 1,061 pages of manufacturing records caught all 11 issues human reviewers found and flagged seven more, cutting review time 89%, from more than 25 hours to under three. Enveda’s release calls this an internal evaluation, says the seven extra issues came from one timed run and that its Quality team still reviews every record before a batch is released. It also says Claude produced a first draft of regulatory content in four hours versus about three months by hand, excluding expert review.
Bristol Myers Squibb is using Claude to assess plans for an early-stage drug already in clinical trials and estimate the trials’ chance of success, and Anthropic said the two plan to expand the work in 2027. Michael Pourdehnad, a BMS senior vice president, said in Anthropic’s post that Claude “generated a robust initial analysis that helped inform our assessment of different development options, which would otherwise take days to complete.” Anthropic also said it acquired Mithril Medicine, a one-person company working on two rare muscular dystrophies, whose work has so far produced promising results in mice. Anthropic said it expects a drug to be ready for human trials as soon as late 2028 if the candidates continue to hold up. The post gave no deal terms. StreetInsider, citing a company statement, reported several of the same figures.
AI Tech Daily previously covered Anthropic’s Bay Area wet lab and its ART enzyme system finding, both in September.
Sources
- Anthropic: Early progress on accelerating drug development with Claude (October 27, 2026)
- StreetInsider: Anthropic partners with drugmakers to test Claude in drug discovery, citing a company statement (October 27, 2026)
- Enveda via Business Wire: Enveda Collaborates with Anthropic to Accelerate Drug Development (October 27, 2026)
- BigHat Biosciences: Agents at the Bench, Anthropic and BigHat collaborate on antibody optimization (October 27, 2026)