Why Anthropic has appointed Novartis’s CEO to its Board

Anthropic has appointed Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board of directors, reflecting a developing relationship between AI firms and non-tech companies such as those in the pharmaceutical industry.

In a company statement on 14 April, Anthropic said Vas, who has overseen the leadership role at Novartis since 2017, “shares Anthropic's conviction that healthcare and life sciences are among the areas where AI has the greatest potential to improve the quality of human life”.

As part of Anthropic’s board, Vas will ensure the company “responsibly balances” advancing AI for the benefit of humanity and its obligation to deliver value to shareholders, as stated by Neil Shah, Chair of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, in the company’s announcement.

In a LinkedIn post, Vas said: “Working across medicine, innovation and global health has helped me realise that technology creates the most value when it's deployed responsibly.”

“Anthropic is demonstrating that AI can be both transformative and responsible. I'm looking forward to contributing to its mission and to helping shape what the future of AI should look like.”

AI integration in the pharmaceutical industry

In the same post, Vas discussed how the pharmaceutical industry is acclimatising to the notion of AI integration, citing its potential to increase the speed in which new discoveries can be made.

“In healthcare, AI is already accelerating some of our hardest scientific challenges – from deepening our understanding of disease biology to helping identify promising targets and design better medicines,” he said. 

“But speed alone isn’t the goal. What matters just as much is how these tools are built, governed, and ultimately applied in the real world.”

“As AI becomes more deeply embedded in healthcare, science and everyday life, getting these foundations right will shape impact for decades to come.”

Vas was appointed by Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, an independent body with no financial stake in the business, who has been tasked with finding a balance between company ethics and financial success.

In the company statement on Vas’s appointment, Neil said: “Vas has spent his career stewarding breakthrough science responsibly – exactly the perspective we are excited to have on the board as we develop consequential technology.”

A rebound in biotech IPOs

Vas’s appointment comes soon after Anthropic accelerated its move to integrate AI within drug development by acquiring New York start-up Coefficient Bio, a company that uses AI to boost drug discovery and biological research, for a reported US$400 million. 

However, the shift to AI within the pharmaceutical industry extends beyond Anthropic.

Industry experts suggest that advanced machine learning tools have played a key role in driving the rebound of IPOs this year.

After a historic low in 2025, with only eight biotech companies going public in 2025 as reported by BioSpace, IPOs seem to be on the upswing this year, with many claiming the reason being the rise of AI.

“AI is fundamentally changing the risk calculus in biotech investing,” Tyrone Lam, Chief Business Officer at GATC Health, an AI-centric tech-bio company, said in the report by BioSpace. 

He added that AI has not only allowed investors a better understanding of the risk calculus in biotech but has also given biotech companies a way to entice potential investors.

In recent months, Anthropic has focused more on the healthcare industry, accelerating funding into the development of its models to suit the needs of the life sciences industry.

In October 2025, for example, the company rolled out Claude Life Sciences, a more tailored version of its AI model designed for use by biopharma professionals, including clinical trial coordinators, regulatory managers and researchers.