Novo Nordisk and Anthropic announced a collaboration to accelerate the development of new medicines and advance AI-driven software development.

The partnership marks the latest step in Novo’s push to become what its chief executive has called the world's most AI-driven healthcare company, and it extends a string of collaborations the company has struck with major technology partners over the course of 2026.

What will the collaboration focus on?

The companies are expected to jointly address key drug discovery challenges identified by scientists and computational teams at Novo, develop targeted solutions for specific scientific challenges and workflows to support biological reasoning, and help accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines.¹ The partnership has been designed with robust data governance and human oversight, helping ensure AI is applied responsibly and in line with Novo’s ethical and compliance standards.

As an initial aim, Novo will test Claude Science for specific workflows in R&D and address scientific problems where the joint capabilities of Novo Nordisk and Anthropic are expected to have the greatest impact.¹

Novo is set to also use Anthropic's frontier models to strengthen AI-driven software development, which the company describes as a key enabler for scaling AI across the organization.¹

"This partnership is another testament to our ambition to become the world's most AI-driven healthcare company, building on Novo's current AI initiatives with other technology partners. 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," said Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk. "AI can help us increase productivity in R&D and compress the path from research to marketed product. But beyond this, AI tools can also offer completely new scientific opportunities and aid reasoning and understanding of human biology and drug mechanics."

What other AI partnerships has Novo pursued?

The Anthropic collaboration is the third major AI partnership Novo has announced so far in 2026, following strategic agreements with OpenAI and Amazon Web Services (AWS) earlier in the year.

In April, Novo announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI aimed at applying advanced AI capabilities to analyze complex datasets, identify promising drug candidates, and reduce the time required to move from research to patient.² That partnership, like the Anthropic deal, was structured with strict data protection, governance and human oversight to ensure ethical and compliant use. As part of the partnership, OpenAI is also assisting Novo in upskilling the company's global workforce and enhancing AI literacy, while applying its capabilities to improve efficiency in manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution and corporate operations.²

In August, Novo and AWS announced a strategic partnership to accelerate drug discovery and modernize Novo’s operations through agentic AI and cloud technologies.³ As part of that partnership, the companies created a co-innovation hub in London where engineers and scientists from both organizations use AWS AI technologies alongside Novo data and insights to compress the path from drug target to first human dose.³

Novo selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider and strategic AI partner, with the company saying it has already seen measurable results from the collaboration, including reducing clinical documentation time and empowering more than 25,000 employees to boost productivity.³ Novo is using services such as Amazon Bio Discovery and Amazon Bedrock to identify drug targets, design new therapies faster, and connect genomic, imaging and clinical data, leveraging Amazon Bedrock AgentCore to drive efficiencies across its operations through AI agents.³

"The companies that will be most competitive in the next decade are not the ones that use AI. Every company will use AI. The ones that win are the companies that use AI to do things that were not previously possible,” Emmanuel Frenehard, chief digital officer at Sanofi told Pharmaceutical Executive in a podcast interview.

Sources

1. Novo and Anthropic will collaborate to advance drug discovery with Claude Novo September 16, 2026, https://www.novonordisk.com/content/nncorp/global/en/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916768
2. Novo Nordisk and OpenAI partner to transform how medicines are discovered and delivered Novo April 14, 2026, https://www.novonordisk.com/content/nncorp/global/en/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916532
3. Novo Nordisk and AWS enter strategic partnership to accelerate drug discovery through AI Novo August 10, 2026, https://www.novonordisk.com/content/nncorp/global/en/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916594