Novo partners with Anthropic to speed drug discovery

(Sharecast News) - Novo has teamed up with AI giant Anthropic in a bid to accelerate drug discovery and development, the Danish pharmaceutical giant said on Wednesday. The company, which just this week rebranded from the previous Novo Nordisk, said the partnership will focus on drug-discovery challenges identified by Novo scientists and computational teams, developing AI-based tools to support biological reasoning and scientific workflows.

Novo will initially test Anthropic's Claude Science platform across selected research and development workflows, while also using Anthropic's AI models to strengthen software development across the business.

The partnership forms part of Novo's ambition to become what it describes as the world's "most AI-driven healthcare company".

Chief executive Mike Doustdar said: "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."

He added that AI could boost R&D productivity and "compress the path from research to marketed product", while opening up new opportunities in understanding human biology and drug mechanisms.

Novo said the collaboration would operate with human oversight and data-governance safeguards intended to ensure responsible use of AI.

Novo shares were down 1.2% at kr272.60 by the close of trade in Copenhagen.