35,000 designs in a month
Anthropic shared early results from its collaborations with drug development companies on October 27. In work with Divergence Labs, Claude turned the company's research goals into a design plan and generated roughly 35,000 antibody designs over about a month, largely autonomously.
The target is immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody involved in allergic reactions. While existing treatments mainly neutralize circulating IgE in the bloodstream, Divergence Labs aims to detach IgE from immune cells, which requires a molecule combining two functions.
Lab results
Initial tests found three designs capable of binding IgE and 20 that could detach it from immune cells. According to Anthropic, three of the latter removed more IgE than a standard medication. The two functions have not yet been combined into a single molecule; Divergence Labs plans to develop one.
Other partnerships
- Generate Biomedicines: Six researchers used Claude Code to redesign genetic instructions for CAR T-cell therapy. One design was about 70% shorter than the standard version; in tests the modified cells produced roughly 10 times as many cancer-recognizing receptors.
- BigHat Biosciences: Claude was connected to an automated lab; about 1,010 molecular variants were made and tested over 10 weeks. The best designs bound their target more than 10 times more strongly.
- Enveda: Across 1,061 pages of manufacturing records, the AI found all 11 issues human reviewers had identified plus seven more. Human review time fell 89%.
In-house work and limits
Anthropic is also working with Bristol Myers Squibb on clinical trial planning and has acquired Mithril Medicine, which is developing treatments for rare childhood muscular dystrophies. One Mithril program showed promising results in mice within 18 months, and a candidate could enter human trials as early as late 2028.
Anthropic acknowledged that most of the work remains preclinical, meaning the potential treatments have not been tested in humans.
