--- title: Anthropic is using Claude in drug programs at six... description: Anthropic is running research partnerships with six organizations developing new medicines, and has also started its own in-house drug discovery programs.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Anthropic is using Claude in drug programs at six companies and in its own | daily.dev og:description: Anthropic is running research partnerships with six organizations developing new medicines, and has also started its own in-house drug discovery programs.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Z2euAiPQV.png og:image:alt: Anthropic is using Claude in drug programs at six companies and in its own og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Anthropic is using Claude in drug programs at six companies and in its own **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Anthropic is running research partnerships with six organizations developing new medicines, and has also started its own in-house drug discovery programs. According to a summary from @rohanpaul_ai, Claude generated roughly 35,000 antibody designs in about a month. The same summary says it coordinated 11 outside labs for a one-person biotech company, and caught 7 manufacturing issues that human reviewers missed. Anthropic's in-house work includes muscular dystrophy research, with one program that could enter human trials as soon as late 2028. The work is still mostly preclinical. ## Content Anthropic has spent the past few months working with six organizations that develop new medicines, and it has now started drug discovery efforts of its own. It also acquired Mithril Medicine, a one-person biotech working on treatments for two rare forms of muscular dystrophy. Anthropic has published early results from the partnerships. The work is mostly preclinical, and the company's in-house programs could put a drug into human trials as soon as late 2028. ## Mithril Medicine Mithril's founder, Cody Tranbarger, used Claude to handle contracts, logistics and experiments across 11 outside labs. He took a possible muscular dystrophy treatment from an idea to promising results in mice in under 18 months. Mice treated with one antibody design developed about twice the grip strength of untreated mice, though that report hasn't been peer reviewed. ## Results from the six partners - **Generate Biomedicines:** Claude Code helped redesign a component of a CAR T-cell therapy. One design was about 70% shorter than standard and let immune cells make roughly 10 times as many receptors in lab tests. - **Divergence Labs:** Claude generated roughly 35,000 antibody designs in about a month, largely on its own, for a food-allergy treatment. - **BigHat:** About 1,010 antibody variants were tested over 10 weeks with Claude guiding the choices. The best bound more than 10 times more tightly. - **Enveda:** Claude reviewed manufacturing records and found all 11 issues human reviewers caught, plus seven they missed. Review time dropped 89%. ## Caveats Scientist @iScienceLuvr called the case studies impressive and raised a few points worth keeping in mind. - AI doesn't hand over a finished drug. Optimization, clinical trials, manufacturing and regulatory filings all still have to happen, and most of this work targets those slower steps at existing biopharma companies. - Validation so far is in vitro, because those experiments close the feedback loop fastest. Little has been done preclinically or clinically, apart from very early clinical trial planning with Bristol Myers Squibb. - Claude often acts as an orchestrator over specialized tools. In the Divergence Labs case it uses protein folding models under the hood. I find the Mithril story the most interesting part. One person ran a drug program, including preclinical testing, because Claude absorbed the operational bottlenecks. That is a different shape of biotech than we're used to. There's also an obvious tension, which @Hesamation put bluntly: the company that sells tokens to an entire industry may end up competing with its own customers. The announcement came one day after Anthropic filed for its IPO. Anthropic has also released full technical reports for each case study. ## Questions this post answers ### How many antibody designs did Claude generate for a drug discovery program? Claude generated roughly 35,000 antibody designs in about a month as part of one of Anthropic's drug discovery partnerships. This was part of broader work where Claude also coordinated 11 outside labs for a one-person biotech company and caught 7 manufacturing issues that human reviewers had missed. _Developers tracking what AI models can actually do beyond code can follow Claude's drug discovery work on daily.dev._ ### Is Anthropic doing its own drug discovery research with Claude, not just partnering with other companies? Yes, Anthropic has started in-house drug discovery programs in addition to research partnerships with six external organizations. Its in-house work includes muscular dystrophy research, with one program potentially entering human trials as soon as late 2028. The work remains mostly preclinical. _Anyone weighing how far AI models have moved into specialized domains can follow this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 132 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-28). **TL;DR:** Reaction is largely skeptical: many see this as a self-serving, IPO-timed press release that overstates AI's role in a drug-development pipeline bottlenecked by slow wet-lab work, clinical trials, and regulation rather than by idea generation. **Sentiment:** 15% positive · 35% mixed · 50% skeptical **The case for** - Some think AI-assisted document review and regulatory paperwork could meaningfully speed up a slow, bureaucratic part of the process. - A few are cautiously optimistic that AI could still lower R&D costs and help rare-disease research over time. - Some note that even modest improvements in candidate selection could meaningfully raise costly clinical trial success rates. **The pushback** - Many argue coming up with drug candidates is already the easy part; the real bottleneck is expensive, slow wet-lab validation and clinical trials that AI can't shortcut. - Several call the post self-serving marketing timed around Anthropic's IPO, inflating modest results. - Multiple commenters report Claude's safety guardrails have become so aggressive that they block or hinder legitimate biology/grant-writing work, undercutting the stated goal. - Some note this is a long-studied application (since the 1960s) and question whether anything genuinely new is being shown versus existing ML/simulation tools already used in the industry. - A few feel the showcased examples are thin and overly reliant on one case being just 'better paperwork' rather than actual scientific breakthroughs. **By community** - hackernews (skeptical): Commenters broadly doubt the significance of the results, citing wet-lab/clinical-trial bottlenecks, self-serving IPO-timed framing, and complaints about overly restrictive safety guardrails limiting real research use. **Hottest debate:** Whether drug discovery's bottleneck is idea/candidate generation (which AI can help with) or the slow, expensive wet-lab and clinical-trial validation process (which AI can't meaningfully accelerate). **Open questions** - Will simulation ever be accurate enough to substitute for wet-lab experiments and clinical trials, and what would that require? - How will regulatory frameworks adapt if AI enables faster parallel drug candidate generation? - Will Anthropic's safety/verification programs for biological research become more accessible to ordinary researchers rather than a gatekept few? - Is there real evidence that AI is accelerating actual drug approvals, or just early-stage candidate generation and paperwork? **Highlights** > It's because these systems aren't as impactful in biology as folks who have never been in a lab would have you believe. Because believe it or not, you can't just go "Claude make me a drug!!" Neural network driven drug candidate creation has been around since the 1980s. The blockbuster GLP-1 agonists were actually derived from the peptide in Gila monster venom by algorithmic search. But you can't, and I can't emphasize this enough, just go "Claude make me a virus" and have it work. It just doesn't work that way. And the only reason why people think it does is because they haven't spent enough time in a lab, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49620521 Don't get me wrong, this technology is worth fighting for because it will have incredible impact on the long time scale. But just not in ways they're talking about and expect. Nor the ways in which they're trying to dictate top down. > — [areoform on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267594) > > We’ve also created the Life Sciences Verification Program to allow trusted organizations to use our most powerful models with more permissive versions of our safeguards, which are necessary to prevent misuse but which can impede legitimate biological research You can't contact anyone on this team. If you know someone who knows someone, then good for you! But if you don't, then sucks to be you. Which is why I would once again like to be annoying and take a moment of your time to remind everyone that Anthropic impedes legitimate researchers from using Claude to write grants. And they would like to scale this to make sure that researchers across the world can't use their chatbot for grammar checks. I wish I was joking. This is from their "Detecting and countering misuse of AI: September 2026" report. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647300 Here's one case study they cited, this one was called, "Case study 3: Covert frontier model access for orthopoxvirus research" > In May 2026, our biological safety classifier blocked a request for Claude’s assistance in authoring a grant application for scientific funding. The work discussed in the application involved gain-of-function research (that is, research that genetically alters an organism to create a new or enhanced biological property) on the chikungunya virus. This gain of function research was aimed at the virus’ transmissibility and immune evasion properties. What were the researchers using Claude for? What did they block? "blocked a request for Claude’s assistance in authoring a grant application" Oh. So no Claude for the developing world, I guess. > Chikungunya virus is a mosquito-borne virus that causes debilitating symptoms (such as severe pain and fever) that can last for weeks or months, and has no licensed therapeutic. And because chikungunya circulates naturally, a deliberate release (as part of a bioweapon) would be difficult to distinguish from a natural outbreak. The grant sought to identify enhancing mutations in the chikungunya virus, engineer them into infectious clones, and select for virulence in vivo. In other words, the virus would become progressively more harmful as it repeatedly infected live animals, with researchers keeping the most disease-causing variants in each round. Similar research could certainly be used in the development of better vaccines and therapeutics for the virus—but it could also be used to make the pathogen more dangerous. What was the grant being written? Note, "The grant sought to identify enhancing mutations in the chikungunya virus, engineer them into infectious clones, and select for virulence in vivo" [..] and then, "Similar research could certainly be used in the development of better vaccines and therapeutics" It was most likely vaccine development. They stopped the study of a neglected tropical disease and vaccine development. But we can't be sure, because, > One of the reasons we were inclined to think this research was less innocuous was that the institutional affiliation associated with the grant was also a cause of concern. Although information within the application suggested that the research was pursued by civilian researchers, it was intended to be performed at a military research institute. I would like to point out the most notable part, this account was used by "civilian researchers" at an "institutional affiliation associated with the grant was also a cause of concern" and the concern was that they were researchers at "performed at a military research institute." In most parts of the world, there's either strict military control over BSL-4 labs, or a mixed military-civilian hybrid model. I doubt that researchers working in the military side of these labs looking to weaponize things are writing grants with Claude. I really want to be charitable here, but in general, it seems that they stopped people writing grants and reports for vaccine and therapeutics research and are claiming it as "possib > — [areoform on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267439) > I work at a university, and part of the job is helping researchers with AI. Our bio and chem researchers are starting to despise Claude because it's been actively getting worse over the last months with increasingly aggressive guardrails. Many of them gave up because they feel they can't do anything useful with it anymore. There's a verified life sciences program, yeah. Is it an easy, transparent process capable of handling the hundreds at just our institution? Not even close. Best ad for open models though, thanks Anthropic! > — [rcr-anti on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267219) > Coming up with candidate drugs is the easiest part of the process. It’s possible that that could be improved a little (not sped up, but suggesting compounds in silico less likely to fail) and possibly have suggestions for scale up, but those are all hard, and the latter is less amenable to being “read” during trains phase. This has been one of the target AI applications since the 1960s. (Former drug developer who will never touch the life sciences again) > — [gumby on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267192) > This is one application of AI that I’ve been hopeful for. Accelerating research into new medicines and cures to disorders, diseases, and cancers could be a net positive on human lives. Maybe it’ll help bring R&D costs down so that medicines for rare diseases aren’t out of reach for those that are afflicted by them. > If Claude is to significantly increase the rate of new cures, we need to work with many more biotechnology firms and integrate Claude more deeply into their development processes. Given all that, the wording here feels very self-serving. Cautious optimism is probably warranted. > — [orthogonal\_cube on hackernews · 11 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266566) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265609) · 139 points · 132 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Anthropic's new pharma deal targets paperwork, not molecules](https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-s-new-pharma-deal-targets-paperwork-not-molecules-ftxalhznc) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Claude Science is Anthropic’s newest flagship product](https://daily.dev/posts/claude-science-is-anthropic-s-newest-flagship-product-vfmdw1psb) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Novo will test Anthropic’s Claude Science to speed up drug discovery](https://daily.dev/posts/novo-will-test-anthropic-s-claude-science-to-speed-up-drug-discovery-s4d7juldj) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic), [#biotech](https://daily.dev/tags/biotech) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Anthropic is using Claude in drug programs at six companies and in its own","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T20:54:58.170Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T11:54:49.485Z","description":"Anthropic is running research partnerships with six organizations developing new medicines, and has also started its own in-house drug discovery programs....","image":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HVqlbg0acAANxuR.png","thumbnailUrl":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HVqlbg0acAANxuR.png","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"claude,anthropic,biotech","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Anthropic is using Claude in drug programs at six companies and in its own"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-is-using-claude-in-drug-programs-at-six-companies-and-in-its-own-z2euaipqv#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many antibody designs did Claude generate for a drug discovery program?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Claude generated roughly 35,000 antibody designs in about a month as part of one of Anthropic's drug discovery partnerships. 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