Anthropic Launches Claude Science to Enter Life Sciences, AI Drug Discovery Stocks Tumble in Response

Anthropic Launches Claude Science to Enter Life Sciences, AI Drug Discovery Stocks Tumble in Response

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced on Monday the release of a new software tool, Claude Science, designed to automate research workflows and free scientists from tedious, repetitive laboratory operations. The product officially became available to users on Tuesday.

According to Anthropic’s presentation at the launch event, Claude Science can be broadly applied to automation tasks in the fields of biology and chemistry, including complex work such as protein structure prediction. The tool integrates more than 60 scientific databases that researchers use daily, allowing users to ask questions in natural language, automatically execute multi-step workflows, and obtain comprehensive, cross-source answers in a single interface, eliminating the need to query multiple independent information sources individually. Claude Science is currently available to paid users in beta form.

Entering Drug Discovery, Targeting “Non-Traditional” Targets

In addition to the software release, Anthropic also announced the formal launch of an internal preclinical drug discovery project. Eric Kauderer-Abrams, head of the company’s life sciences division, stated that the initiative will focus on “target areas that traditional pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors might find unattractive,” aiming to leverage AI to open up blue-ocean opportunities in new drug development.

Following the announcement, shares of multiple drug discovery-related companies fell sharply. Schrodinger Inc. (SDGR) dropped as much as 8.3% during trading, Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (RXRX) declined 3.3%, and IQVIA (IQV) also fell more than 2.3% at one point. Although some stocks recovered ground afterward, market concerns over AI-driven scientific research potentially disrupting traditional CRO and drug discovery business models continued to intensify. In February of this year, Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, a legal automation tool, which triggered a roughly $1 trillion evaporation in market capitalization of legal technology stocks globally. The market reaction to this entry into the life sciences sector was highly similar.

Anthropic and its competitor OpenAI have continuously rolled out AI tools for finance, science, healthcare, and other fields over the past year to expand their enterprise customer bases and support their high valuations. Anthropic is currently valued at $965 billion, and the company is actively preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as this fall.

The event was held in San Francisco, where Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei attended and delivered a speech. Vas Narasimhan, CEO of pharmaceutical giant Novartis (NVS) and also a member of Anthropic’s board of directors, spoke at the event, stating: “We have made many bold promises, and now we need to prove to patients that we can indeed deliver real results.” He also called for the prompt establishment of an appropriate AI regulatory framework, emphasizing that “it would be a pity to wait until a crisis occurs before pushing for regulation.” Chris Boerner, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), was also expected to speak at the event.

The launch of Claude Science marks Anthropic’s further expansion from a general-purpose AI assistant into vertical industry solutions. As AI applications in the life sciences deepen, the narrative of “technological disruption” facing traditional pharmaceutical and CRO companies will continue to intensify. Whether Anthropic can leverage this to expand revenue, sustain its nearly trillion-dollar valuation, and successfully advance its IPO will become the next focal point for the market.