AI company Anthropic is expanding its footprint into the biomedical industry.
Anthropic is aggressively expanding its life science ecosystem, following the late 2025 debut of Claude for Life Science. This summer, the company also launched an internal drug discovery program alongside the June 2026 release of Claude for Science.
The major technology company has no plans of slowing down any time soon. Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic’s life sciences lead, said the company will also launch an internal preclinical drug development program focused on neglected diseases with limited commercial attention.
“We’re doing this because we believe first and foremost that to build the right models, products and tools to accelerate the industry, we need to live it along with all of you,” Kauderer-Abrams said. “We believe in the power of tight feedback loops, and there’s no substitute for having our own experiences alongside you all in the trenches trying to develop drugs.”
The expansion comes as Anthropic announced several partnerships, including with the Allen Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The company also acquired AI biotech startup Coefficient Bio, which was focused on computational biology.
The move also highlights the growing trend of AI companies expanding into healthcare, driven by the sector’s high potential return on investment.
Biochemical Research In Focus For Anthropic
Anthropic launched Claude for Science, which is an AI-powered research workbench. The tool helps scientists analyze data, review scientific literature, write code and manage research workflows from a single interface.
The cloud-based workbench allows scientists to analyze and execute research, producing figures and manuscripts for publication. Users can develop scientific figures, including 3D protein structures, genome browser tracks and chemical structures.
In addition to the platform and program launch, Anthropic launched its AI for Science program focused on rare disease research. The initiative provides accepted researchers working on rare genetic diseases with access to Claude API. Applicants will also get up to $50,000 in Claude credits over six months.
The company shared that the program is designed to accelerate scientific research and discovery.
“We’re particularly interested in supporting applications where AI can assist in accelerating processes related to understanding complex biological systems, analyzing genetic data, accelerating drug discovery especially for some of the largest global disease burdens, increasing agricultural productivity, and more,” the company shared in a blog post.
The program is currently only open to nonprofit and academic research teams. Researchers accepted into the program would focus on high-impact rare disease projects across more than 7,000 conditions.
According to Anthropic, the program aims to address fragmented data, research gaps and lengthy treatment timelines.
Several Tech Players Launch AI Research Program
Anthropic is not alone in using research partnerships and grant programs to expand AI’s role in scientific discovery. Major AI players are increasingly outsourcing specialized research and health domain data from external experts.
Several tech companies have launched initiatives providing cloud computing, API credits and technical support to universities, nonprofits and research institutions.
Google supports academic research through programs including the Google.org AI for Science Impact Challenge and the TPU Research Cloud. The initiatives provide researchers with TPU infrastructure, AI models and funding for computational biology, genomics and medical imaging projects.
Open AI
Following the release of its life science research model, GPT-Rosalind, OpenAI launched the Researcher Access Program. The initiative offers subsidized API credits to researchers and nonprofits studying healthcare, AI safety and public policy. The program could help lower barriers to frontier AI models for research on model performance, clinical applications and responsible deployment.
Chan Zuckerberg
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has taken a different approach, offering researchers access to high-performance computing infrastructure instead of API credits. Academic teams can use CZI’s GPU cluster to train biological AI models. However, studies must have a biomedical focus, including single-cell biology, bioimaging and virtual cell research.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s AI for Health initiative provides grant funding, Azure cloud credits and technical support to universities, nonprofits and healthcare organizations. The program backs projects across genomics, medical imaging and population health. Researchers receive access to Azure cloud resources and support from Microsoft Research.
Partnerships Becoming A Core Strategy
The main AI players have been working with academic researchers, nonprofit institutions, and corporate partners. These partnership structures allow AI companies to test models on real-world biomedical problems while expanding adoption of their platforms.
Pharmaceutical Industry
In April, Anthropic appointed Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board of directors, deepening the company’s ties to the life sciences sector. Narasimhan became the first pharmaceutical executive to serve on the board of a major AI lab.
In social media post announcing the appointment, Narasimhan highlighted the importance of responsible AI deployment. He noted the impact AI has in accelerating progress within the life science industry.
“In healthcare, AI is already accelerating some of our hardest scientific challenges – from deepening our understanding of disease biology to helping identify promising targets and design better medicines,” Narasimhan said. “But speed alone isn’t the goal. What matters just as much is how these tools are built, governed, and ultimately applied in the real world.”
OpenAI has taken a different approach. While it has not added a pharmaceutical executive to its board, the company recently announced a strategic partnership with Novo Nordisk focused on drug discovery. The pharmaceutical executive described the partnership as brining on the new era of healthcare.
“This partnership allows us to embrace the tools that will define the next era of healthcare innovation. We are committed to doing this responsibly, transparently and with patient safety at the centre of everything we do,” Novo Nordisk CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Health Systems
Beyond drug discovery, both Anthropic and OpenAI have expanded partnerships with hospitals, health systems and healthcare organizations.
Anthropic’s healthcare push centers on Claude for Healthcare, a separate offering that allows healthcare providers, payers, health technology companies and startups to build applications using infrastructure designed to support HIPAA compliance.
The company is positioning the tool as a way for organizations to integrate healthcare compliant AI into existing hospital systems.
Anthropic has publicly highlighted healthcare partnerships with organizations including Carta Healthcare, Commure and Qualified Health. These companies use Claude models for applications such as automating clinical data abstraction and supporting healthcare workflows.
Anthropic says other organizations are using its healthcare product for clinical trial operations, medical documentation, prior authorization, administrative workflows and patient engagement.
