Exclusive | Anthropic Adds Novartis CEO to Board

Anthropic appointed Vas Narasimhan, chief executive of Novartis, to its board of directors.

Anthropic has appointed Vas Narasimhan, chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis NOVN 0.20%increase; green up pointing triangle, to its board of directors, its second new board addition in recent months.

The company is strengthening its board as it eyes an initial public offering, potentially as soon as this year, and as it expands its enterprise push into healthcare. The developer of the Claude chatbot added Chris Liddell, the former Microsoft and General Motors executive, to its board in February.

The healthcare sector is a priority for Anthropic. It has already partnered with Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Genmab with the aim of shortening drug development life cycles.

Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei said in a statement that Narasimhan had overseen the development and approval of more than 35 novel medicines in "one of the most regulated industries."

Anthropic announced several new features in January tailored to healthcare providers, insurers and health tech companies. It also expanded Claude's capabilities in life sciences to better assist with clinical trial management and regulatory operations. Earlier this month, Anthropic acquired biotech startup Coefficient Bio, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Information earlier reported on the deal talks.

"AI is accelerating solutions to some of the hardest scientific challenges, from deepening our understanding of disease biology to designing better medicines," Narasimhan said in a statement.