Novo Nordisk Partners With Anthropic to Advance AI Drug Discovery

Novo Nordisk has partnered with artificial intelligence company Anthropic to use AI to speed up drug discovery, support research and improve software development across its organisation.

Under the collaboration, the companies will work together on drug discovery challenges identified by Novo’s scientists and computational teams. The partnership will focus on developing AI solutions for specific scientific problems and research workflows, with the aim of improving biological reasoning and accelerating the development of new medicines.

Novo will initially test Anthropic’s Claude Science model in selected research and development workflows. The companies will identify areas where their combined expertise and technology could have the greatest impact on scientific research.

Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk, said the collaboration supports the company’s goal of becoming a more AI-driven healthcare company. He said AI could help improve productivity across research and development and shorten the time needed to move medicines from early research to the market.

The partnership will also explore how AI can create new opportunities for understanding human biology and the way medicines work, rather than focusing only on improving existing research processes.

Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei said advanced AI models could help researchers reduce research timelines and improve the development of new medicines and treatments. He said the collaboration with Novo is aimed at giving researchers access to AI tools that can support scientific work.

In addition to drug discovery, Novo Nordisk plans to use Anthropic’s AI models to support software development. The companies said this will be important for expanding the use of AI across Novo’s operations.

The collaboration will include data governance measures and human oversight. Novo said these safeguards are intended to ensure that AI is used responsibly and in line with its ethical and compliance standards.

The partnership comes as pharmaceutical companies increasingly explore AI for drug discovery, research and development, and other areas of healthcare. For Novo Nordisk, the collaboration with Anthropic adds another technology partnership to its wider efforts to integrate AI into its business and scientific operations.