Anthropic’s Got Drugs, Deep Pockets & Something To Hide

Reading time: 5m 17s

Anthropic’s IPO is all set to be the biggest IPO in history. 

Every move is being closely watched, dissected, and scrutinized. From small discoveries to product updates and eyebrow-raising numbers, everything is becoming a headline. 

So we thought we’d save you the trouble of chasing down 17 different stories and put everything in one place. 

Big pharma is cooked

If you read our latest newsletter edition, you would have come across the “Anthropic is getting into drugs” headline. As clickbait as it might feel, it’s 110% true. 

Dario’s company is developing its own experimental drugs using Claude for rare childhood diseases and various cancers. 

‍In their recent blog post, they claimed,

“These projects should, if their positive trajectories continue, have direct impact themselves. We’re optimistic that some may result in effective new medicines for the diseases they target, including food allergies, rare childhood diseases, and several forms of cancer.”

Talking about results, here’s what Claude did inside six drug companies:

• Three months of regulatory writing wrapped up in four hours
• ~35,000 antibody designs in a month
• Human review time cut by 89%
• A cancer therapy genetic instructions part made 70% shorter, worked BETTER in lab tests

Anthropic also went on to acquire Mithril Medicine, a one-person company that has been developing treatments for two rare forms of muscular dystrophy. 

Its founder, Cody Tranbarger, used Claude to organize contracts, logistics, and experiments with 11 external labs and delegated many other aspects of Mithril’s operations to Claude. 

In a span of less than 18 months, Mithril advanced a possible treatment for one form of muscular dystrophy from an idea to promising results in mice. 

When it comes to cancer/other diseases, there are no “one-size-fits-all” cures. That’s the stupidest thing you’ll ever hear. Go ask Grant about it, and I’m sure by the end of it, you’ll be laughing at blanket therapeutics.

Personalized medicine is the future. You have to target each specific case individually. There’s no other way around it.

‍Cody is continuing this research at the moment, and Anthropic expects a drug to be ready to begin human clinical trials by late 2028. 

‍So yeah, big pharma is cooked, good riddance, and and and, Anthropic is now more or less synonymous with a drug business.  

Build, and they will come?

You may have a great product with groundbreaking capabilities that could revolutionize and reshape the future. But what use will it be if people don’t know about its existence? 

No matter how strong the fundamental legs are, you gotta be shamelessly noisy, relentless, unawkward, and unapologetic about getting the word out, letting the masses know, making them care, and staying visible. 

And that’s exactly what Anthropic has been doing. Their S1 filing brought to light that they spent nearly $3.17 billion on sales, marketing, and partnerships in H1 2026. 

I’m not saying they shelled out the entire amount on just blowing their own trumpet. A huge chunk, of course, includes free user inference costs, whatever they paid out to their cloud distribution partners, etc. But that’s just part of the pie, you have to deal with it.

You can’t be stingy when it comes to marketing. You have to do what it takes, make sure you’re doing it with the right set of people, and have a clear-cut message to deliver. 

Anthropic runs a hybrid model, with an in-house brand and creative team that sets direction and external agencies that execute the big campaigns. 

The in-house team owns the brand, voice, and briefs and produces a lot of work itself. Mother, Initiative, and Edelman take care of the large flagship campaigns, media buys, and PR.

Together they’ve taken a bunch of bold calls. For instance, during their Super Bowl debut earlier this year, they explicitly took a dig at OpenAI. 

People had their verdict ready in no time. 

Feels like a good time to quote what Alex said a while back,

“I’m not saying tumbleweed is okay. I’m saying meaningful engagement is important. But there’s no silver bullet for that. 

So if you’re managing marketing or building a campaign, your approach should be multifaceted. People here value word of mouth, social proof, and trusted voices above all.”

Looks like Anthropic has its priorities sorted and is going to keep going down the same path. 

On page 64, their filing reaffirmed, 

“We have expended and expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources related to the growth of our business, including: expansion of our sales and marketing activities.”

‍Bottom line: Build and they will come is the fool’s theory. Build and MAKE SURE they come is what should be preached and practiced. 

Mission undercover 

merch. Merch. MERCH. 

Everyone is obsessed with merch.  

It’s cool, it gives you a sense of identity, makes you feel like an insider, and emits that sophisticated/cultured aura.  

Let’s say you’re associated with Anthropic. You know that your company is scripting history every day. You get to be a part of that story. Part of that clan. Part of the gang that's watching it all unfold from the inside. 

I know we’re all suckers for feeling like we belong. But now, that very feeling has been stripped from Anthropic employees. The company has banned branded merch, and everyone working has been asked to hide all visible badges/logos, etc. 

This decision comes on the heels of fears over seduction, corporate espionage, foreign spies, and potential honey traps. 

People have seen AI employees being approached time and again by people hunting for inside information. In the words of Miao Hong, managing partner of Silicon Valley Future Capital, 

“Everyone wants to find out about developments and information at the cutting edge of technology. They want firsthand information. They want to talk to these employees.” 

I might’ve worked remotely my entire life, but I’ve heard enough tales to know that the actual fun and banter happen once you’re done with your day. 

Imagine not being able to talk about work with the people you work with after work. Your day just feels incomplete. 

Don’t think things could get any more messed up. 

As if that wasn’t enough, employees have been asked to use privacy screens on public transit and wipe meeting-room whiteboards when they leave. 

Even the dot, Jim, even the dot! :) 

Anthropic (or Meta, OpenAI, or any other AI company, for that matter) employs a huge chunk of foreign nationals, with China supplying much of the world’s top AI talent. 

A recent “cat-and-mouse secret-stealing spies” WSJ report pointed out,

“A number of Trump administration officials have identified employment of Chinese nationals by AI and technology companies as a national security vulnerability, alleging that some share secrets with Beijing.” 

Self-safety/protection comes first in any given scenario, so I guess they indeed had no better option than to conceal their identities by banning merch.

On that very note, Anthropic spent $2.7 million on Dario Amodei’s personal security last year, more than 4x his base $654k salary. 

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Bottom line

Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of another week in the life of Anthropic. 

There’s a LOT more brewing behind those closed doors, and if the last few days are anything to go by, the Anthropic lore is going to get more sizzling. 

I’ll leave the juicier, slightly more questionable/scandalous/controversial tangents for the next edition. Trust me, this is just the beginning!