Danish pharma giant Novo to use Anthropic's Claude to advance AI drug discovery

Novo, the Danish pharmaceutical company formerly known as Novo Nordisk, announced Wednesday a partnership with Anthropic to use Anthropic's models and Claude Science to advance AI-driven drug discovery and R&D. Novo president and CEO Mike Doustdar said joining forces with Anthropic will "supercharge our R&D organisation," while Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei said AI could "compress a century's worth of biological and medical breakthroughs into a decade." The deal follows Novo's April agreement to use OpenAI's GPT-Rosalind for life-sciences research and Anthropic's May 2026 collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to deploy Claude across its research, clinical development, manufacturing, commercial, and corporate functions.

The deal underscores a broader push by drugmakers to integrate AI across research and development to boost new drug discovery. Novo, previously Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic, has partnered with Anthropic to accelerate the development of new medicines using artificial intelligence. “Joining forces with Anthropic will supercharge our R&D organisation and help us on our mission to bring new, transformative health solutions to people living with chronic diseases,“ said Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo, in a press release https://www.novonordisk.com/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916768 Wednesday. The pharmaceutical giant will use Anthropic’s models and Claude Science to advance scientific reasoning for Research and Development R&D , the company announced. Beyond increasing productivity in R&D, Novo’s CEO said AI tools can offer “completely new scientific opportunities” and help reasoning and understanding of human biology and drug mechanics. "AI’s increasing capability brings with it the potential to compress a century’s worth of biological and medical breakthroughs into a decade," said Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. He added that by giving leading researchers access to safe, capable, and trusted frontier models, it is possible to shorten research timelines, improve outcomes, and discover medicines and treatments that significantly improve human life. This partnership comes amid Novo’s bet on AI to fast-track drug research. The pharma giant is already using OpenAI’s science GPT-Rosalind, https://www.euronews.com/health/2026/04/17/what-to-know-about-openais-new-model-for-life-sciences-research-gpt-rosalind after sealing the deal https://www.euronews.com/health/2026/04/14/novo-nordisk-joins-forces-with-openai-to-fast-track-drug-research in April to use advanced AI to analyse complex datasets, identify potential drugs, and cut the time between research and patient access. In 2024, the Novo Nordisk Foundation partnered with Nvidia and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark EIFO to establish the Danish Centre for AI Innovation, which operates Gefion – Denmark's first AI-ready supercomputer https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/03/20/denmark-to-get-powerful-ai-supercomputer-and-research-centre . Anthropic is also expanding its work in the life sciences sector. In May 2026, the tech company announced a collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to deploy Claude across the company's research, clinical development, manufacturing, commercial, and corporate functions. Go to accessibility shortcuts accessibility-bar menu