Anthropic Files for IPO: S-1 Shows 9 of the 10 Largest Pharma Companies in the Fortune 500 Are Paying Customers
Anthropic filed for its IPO with the SEC on Monday, and its S-1 shows that 9 of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the Fortune 500 each spent at least $100,000 with the company in the twelve months to September 30. Eight of the 10 largest healthcare companies in the Fortune 500 also cleared that threshold.
The filing does not break out revenue or customer numbers by industry but it lists healthcare and life sciences first among the new markets Anthropic plans to enter, and cites an IQVIA estimate that global pharmaceutical spending will exceed $2 trillion in 2026.
Anthropic plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker "ANT". Its revenue in the first half of 2026 was $16.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier, the Financial Times reported.
A lab of its own
According to the prospectus, Claude is used in drug discovery and development by Anthropic's customers, its biotech partners and its own researchers. The company says it has hired industry experts and is building a molecular biology lab.
For instance, in April, Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio, a computational biology startup, for 15.4 million Class A shares, a deal valued at about $400 million at the time. In June it launched Claude Science, a research workbench, together with an internal preclinical drug discovery program focused on neglected diseases, MIT Technology Review reported. The S-1 lists Claude Science among Anthropic's core products, next to Claude Code.
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, a former global head of drug development at the Swiss drugmaker, joined Anthropic's board in April.
Claude for Life Sciences covers work from early research to clinical trials and regulatory submissions. Claude for Healthcare, launched in January at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, connects to the CMS Coverage Database, ICD-10 and the NPI Registry. A tool still in research preview, the Model Hardware Standard, lets Claude operate microscopes, liquid handlers and robotic arms.
Anthropic restricts its most capable model class, Mythos, to vetted cybersecurity and life sciences organizations. In September it opened a Life Sciences Verification Program for that access, the same month it released Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1.
Partnerships and research
Anthropic started research collaborations with HHMI and the Allen Institute in February. In May it signed a four-year partnership with the Gates Foundation covering vaccines and disease modeling, The Pharma Letter reported. In September, Novo Nordisk agreed to apply Claude to drug discovery.
The company has also published results from its own lab. On October 20 it reported that Claude designed binders against scorpion neurotoxins, with 17 of 211 designs meeting binding criteria in lab tests. In September it reported a Claude-led discovery of a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats.
Interestingly, Mario Rodríguez Mestre, who did his PhD at the University of Copenhagen, says his team identified the same enzyme earlier in unpublished work, The Scientist reported. Anthropic says Claude was not trained on user transcripts and that the system was found in previously published data.
Emerging life science-specific risks
The S-1 says the life sciences research program exposes Anthropic to biosafety, hazardous materials and possibly preclinical and clinical research regulations. It says any drug candidates from that work may never generate revenue.
For its healthcare products, the company cites possible FDA oversight, HIPAA, laws on the practice of medicine, and liability if model errors contribute to patient harm. It also says its most capable models could meaningfully help people trying to develop biological weapons, and that its safeguards have been circumvented in the past.
Banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will set the IPO valuation after talks with investors over the coming weeks, but existing investors expect Anthropic to seek between $1.5 trillion and $1.75 trillion, the FT reported.
Topic: Tech Giants
