Anthropic drops 400 million in shares on an eight-month-old AI pharma startup with fewer than ten employees

Anthropic has acquired AI biotech startup Coefficient Bio for roughly 400 million dollars in shares, according to Newcomer and The Information. The startup was founded just eight months ago, had fewer than ten employees, and built a platform using AI for pharmaceutical tasks like drug research planning and identifying new drug opportunities.

The real draw is likely the talent. Anthropic appears to be after specialists who can accelerate its pharma work immediately: the team is joining Anthropic's Healthcare and Life Sciences division under Eric Kauderer-Abrams. Venture capital firm Dimension, which held about half of the startup, is reporting a 38,513 percent return. Both companies declined to comment.

The acquisition comes as big pharma ramps up its own AI efforts. Eli Lilly recently signed a billion-dollar deal with AI drug developer Insilico Medicine. Anthropic already works with Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, and AbbVie, while Google DeepMind has spun off its own AI medicine company.