Anthropic announced Tuesday that it is launching new pre-clinical drug discovery programs in an attempt to produce artificial intelligence-powered tools for drugmakers.
Anthropic Head of Life Sciences Eric Kauderer-Abrams said during an “AI for Science” event in San Francisco that the AI company plans to prioritize discovering drugs to treat “neglected” diseases “outside the scope” of traditional pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies that may not view them as “attractive targets.”
“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 during the event. “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.”
“And the second reason is that we are fortunate enough due to our public benefit mission to be able to go after these neglected diseases that otherwise wouldn’t be addressed,” he added.
A company spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday that as a public benefit company, Anthropic “can choose programs on patient benefit, including work the commercial market overlooks.”
“We’re at the start of this, and we’ll share more as the work progresses,” the spokesperson added.
Kauderer-Abrams did not specify how the company would proceed if it discovers any promising drug candidates, the outlet reported.
Anthropic did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
On Tuesday, Anthropic also unveiled Claude Science, a new “AI workbench for scientists.” Claude Science is an AI-powered app “that integrates the tools and packages that researchers most commonly use, produces auditable artifacts, and provides flexible access to computing resources,” according to the company’s announcement.
The move comes as AI is becoming rapidly adopted across the U.S. healthcare sector. A Menlo Ventures report released in October 2025 found that 22% of U.S. healthcare organizations have already implemented domain-specific AI tools, marking a seven times increase over 2024 and ten times over 2023.
AI programs also have the potential to make some of the most challenging steps in drug discovery more efficient and faster, such as by identifying disease targets, generating new compounds and predicting safety, according to the World Economic Forum.
Experts previously told the DCNF that while widespread adoption of AI tools can potentially help boost productivity and bring down costs in the nation’s healthcare industry, it may also result in patients receiving inaccurate medical information.
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