Bristol Myers Squibb said it has entered into a partnership with Anthropic to make the company’s Claude artificial intelligence model available to more than 30,000 employees. The collaboration is intended to speed up the discovery, development and delivery of new medicines by enabling staff across multiple functions to access Claude’s capabilities.
In addition to deployment of Claude, Bristol Myers said it will leverage Claude Code, Anthropic’s tool for coding, and will evaluate the tool’s potential uses across research, drug development, manufacturing, and commercial and medical affairs. The company framed the effort as a way to surface value that remains locked inside corporate data systems.
"Most enterprise AI stops at the chatbot. The real prize is the untapped value still trapped behind decades of data silos, and this collaboration is how we reach it," said Greg Meyers, chief digital and technology officer at Bristol Myers.
The announcement is one of a number of recent agreements by drugmakers seeking to harness artificial intelligence. The industry has seen a variety of deals aimed at applying AI tools to different stages of the drug lifecycle, from early discovery to development and commercial operations. The article noted that some companies, including Eli Lilly - which has a partnership with chipmaker Nvidia - are placing substantial bets on AI’s ability to improve the success rate of new medicines.
Consultancy research cited in the announcement highlighted the potential productivity impact of more autonomous, or agentic, forms of AI. McKinsey estimated last year that agentic AI could raise clinical development productivity by roughly 35% to 45% over the next five years. The estimate was presented as a prospective productivity range rather than a guarantee.
Bristol Myers’ move will make Claude available broadly within the company while the firm tests specific applications and evaluates outcomes across scientific, manufacturing and commercial teams. The initiative aims to connect AI tooling with the firm’s existing data and workflows while assessing where the technology can be most beneficial.
Sectors impacted: Biopharmaceutical research and development, drug manufacturing, commercial and medical affairs, and enterprise AI/technology providers.