Anthropic has taken another step in strengthening its position within life sciences research with the introduction of Claude Science, a new AI workbench designed to combine research activities, literature analysis and advanced computing workflows in a unified environment. Announced on 30th June 2026, the launch builds on the company’s life sciences tool introduced in October and arrives alongside a broader move into drug discovery and pharmaceutical research.
The company’s decision to pursue its own drug discovery initiatives was unveiled during an event in San Francisco. Speaking at the event, Anthropic’s head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, explained the rationale behind the move, stating that for Anthropic to create the most effective tools and models for the pharmaceutical sector.
“We need to live it along with all of you.” He further noted that Anthropic believes “in the power of tight feedback loops, and there’s no substitute for having our own experiences alongside you all in the trenches trying to develop drugs,” he said.
As part of its newly launched internal programme, Anthropic plans to initially direct its drug discovery efforts toward treatments for “neglected” diseases that may not be considered commercially attractive by conventional biopharmaceutical companies, according to Kauderer-Abrams.
Since presenting its life sciences strategy, the company has expanded its presence in the drug development sector through several initiatives. These include the acquisition of AI biotech startup Coefficient Bio, the appointment of Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, to its board, and collaborations with Bristol Myers Squibb and the Gates Foundation focused on AI applications in vaccine research, disease modelling and health-system operations in lower-income countries. The company has also recruited John Jumper, known for co-creating AlphaFold during his time at Google DeepMind.
Integrated Capabilities Aim to Streamline Drug R&D Activities
At the centre of Anthropic’s growing drug discovery strategy is Claude Science, which provides more than 60 curated skills and connectors configured for genomics, single-cell research, proteomics, structural biology and cheminformatics. The platform is designed to enable researchers to perform analyses and access data through a single interface rather than moving between multiple software tools.
Anthropic said that every artifact generated within the application is accompanied by the underlying code, computing environment, a plain-language explanation of the process followed and a complete conversation history. This approach is intended to support reproducibility and allow research results to be recreated long after they are produced.
The platform operates using NVIDIA’s Agent Toolkit, which enables direct connections to life sciences models and libraries available through BioNeMo, including Evo 2, Boltz-2 and OpenFold3. Anthropic noted that Claude Science is not a new model. Instead, it runs on existing models and is built to function within a laboratory’s own infrastructure.
Anthropic’s latest move comes as competition intensifies in AI-driven healthcare and drug discovery. Recently, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT for Clinicians and GPT-Rosalind for biological research and drug discovery workflows, in addition to ChatGPT Health for consumers and ChatGPT for Healthcare for organisations.
