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The maker of Ozempic and Wegovy is betting on Anthropic's Claude models to compress decades of pharmaceutical research into years
Novo, the pharmaceutical giant formerly known as Novo Nordisk, has signed a strategic partnership with AI company Anthropic to speed up its drug discovery and development pipeline. The collaboration, announced on September 16, will put Anthropic’s Claude models and the Claude Science workbench directly into the hands of Novo’s research scientists.
The deal is the latest in a series of AI bets by the Danish drugmaker, which has stated its ambition to become the world’s most AI-driven healthcare company.
What the partnership actually looks like #
The initial phase of the collaboration will focus on piloting Claude Science in targeted drug discovery workflows. Novo’s scientists will identify particular R&D challenges, then deploy Anthropic’s tools against them. The company made a point of emphasizing that data governance and human oversight remain central to the process.
“This partnership will supercharge our R&D organization,” said Novo CEO Mike Doustdar.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei offered an even more ambitious framing, suggesting AI could “compress a century’s worth of breakthroughs into a decade.”
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
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Why Novo is going all-in on AI #
This isn’t Novo’s first dance with artificial intelligence. The company has existing collaborations with both OpenAI and Amazon Web Services, suggesting a deliberate strategy of working with multiple AI providers rather than locking into a single ecosystem.
One of its most concrete AI wins so far is a tool called NovoScribe, which reduced the time required to generate clinical study reports from months to minutes.
The broader context here is competitive pressure. Novo’s blockbuster semaglutide franchise, which includes Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, faces an increasingly crowded market. Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide has proven a formidable rival, and a wave of next-generation obesity drugs from multiple competitors is advancing through clinical trials.
Novo rebranded from Novo Nordisk to simply Novo earlier this year, signaling a desire to be seen as more than just an insulin and GLP-1 company.
The bigger picture for pharma and AI #
The traditional drug development timeline runs roughly 10 to 15 years from initial discovery to market approval, with costs frequently exceeding a billion dollars per successful drug. Early-stage AI applications include identifying drug targets, predicting molecular interactions, and screening compound libraries. Later-stage uses involve optimizing clinical trial design and, as NovoScribe demonstrates, automating regulatory documentation.
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