A major artificial intelligence company is betting its technology can speed up the drug development process and open new possibilities for the treatment of rare diseases.
Anthropic announced the creation last week of its new Claude Science tool, which aims to help scientists conduct research and experiments faster than before.
The company also said it will be using the tool.
“We’ve decided to start running some drug programs ourselves,” Eric Kauderer-Abrams, head of life sciences at Anthropic, said.
“We’ve chosen to do this by running drug programs in the preclinical stage, so the earlier stages of discovery, and choosing indications for neglected disease.”
By neglected, Kauderer-Abrams said he meant diseases considered less attractive targets for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries because drugs to treat them would be less profitable.
A spokesman for Anthropic told WTOP the company is starting with a small number of early-stage, preclinical drug programs.
“We have two primary objectives that we’re pursuing,” Kauderer-Abrams said.
“The first is accelerating scientific discovery as an end in itself, pure pursuit of basic research, and the second is accelerating, alleviating the burden of disease and aging.”
By engaging in the research, Anthropic said the company can assess and evaluate its new Claude Science tool and provide instant feedback about what will work and what won’t for scientific customers.
“We’re doing this because we believe, first and foremost, that to build the right models and products and tools that accelerate the whole industry, we need to live it along with all of you,” Kauderer-Abrams said.
He also said Anthropic’s business classification means it can do things that big drugmakers might not be able to. Because Anthropic is considered a public-benefit company, it’s able to balance profits with the public good.
“We are fortunate due to our public benefit mission to be able to go after these neglected diseases that otherwise wouldn’t be addressed,” Kauderer-Abrams said.
The Anthropic spokesman told WTOP that the company could not yet provide specifics about its research since it was in the early stages.
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