Anthropic in October last year iterated its Claude AI model to better cater to biopharma purposes. Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie and others already use Claude in their operations.
AI leader Anthropic is pushing further into the life sciences space by acquiring the New York–based startup Coefficient Bio for around $400 million.
The biotech, which currently has fewer than 10 employees, will be absorbed into Anthropic’s healthcare team, according to The Information, which broke the news on Thursday, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter. BioSpace has reached out to Anthropic for independent confirmation.
Much about the deal remains under wraps. An exact value wasn’t disclosed by The Information’s source, nor is it clear when the companies plan to close the transaction. The source also didn’t specify what Coefficient brings to the table and how the acquisition will enrich Anthropic’s AI operations in the life sciences.
For the most part, Coefficient has been operating under stealth. Its website contains no information about its platform and its LinkedIn page is sparse, listing just a handful of people associated with the startup. BioSpace’s inquiry email bounced.
Coefficient’s co-founders, Nathan Frey and Samuel Stanton, had both previously worked on machine learning at Roche’s Genentech. Stanton on his LinkedIn profile indicates that he is currently a full-time member of Anthropic’s technical staff. Coefficient’s CEO is Aris Theologis, who had previously held leadership roles at Evozyne and Paragon Biosciences.
For Anthropic, the Coefficient acquisition builds on its efforts to enter the healthcare space. In October 2025, the AI giant launched Claude Life Sciences, an iteration of its machine learning model specifically designed to help professionals across the biopharma industry, covering scientists, clinical trial coordinators and regulatory managers.
Some of the largest pharma companies, including Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and AbbVie, use Claude in their operations.
The acquisition also comes as biopharma increasingly incorporates AI into its business and as industry giants invest heavily into the tech. Just last week, for instance, Eli Lilly bet up to $2.75 billion to expand its engagement with Insilico Medicine, leveraging the biotech’s AI-driven engine to design oral drugs for a clutch of unspecified indications.
A week earlier, Earendil Labs brought in $787 million in a private placement backed by Sanofi and Pfizer—money that will feed into the biotech’s AI platform, which to date has already generated more than 40 programs.
AI has also helped reinvigorate biopharma’s IPO market, according to experts interviewed by BioSpace, who noted that startups can use advanced algorithms to better make their case to investors, who in turn can use these models to better assess their risk.
“The companies drawing the most serious investor attention right now, regardless if they’ve IPO’d, share a common characteristic: they’re using AI not just as a discovery accelerator, but as a risk communication tool,” Tyrone Lam, chief business officer at GATC Health, an AI-centric tech-bio company, told BioSpace in an email earlier this month.
