Anthropic has acquired Mithril Medicine, a biotechnology startup developing experimental treatments for rare inherited muscular dystrophies. The acquisition, completed in July 2026 and disclosed on 27 October, marks the company's move beyond AI tools for external drug developers towards running its own drug discovery programmes. Mithril had just one full-time employee, its founder Cody Tranbarger, who used Anthropic's Claude AI assistant to manage research activities and coordinate work with 11 external laboratories. Tranbarger has joined Anthropic, where he will continue the existing programmes and lead the development of additional internal...