🧪After upending the world of software programming, Anthropic is turning its attention to biopharma. The company launched Claude Science this week, which leaders describe as an AI workbench for scientific research. Andrew Dunn landed an interview with Anthropic’s head of life sciences Eric Kauderer-Abrams, who called the launch “the biggest step in [Anthropic’s] life sciences journey.” Read more from Andrew here.

Anthropic is also working on its own drugs for neglected diseases, but Kauderer-Abrams did not disclose many details. The programs are, however, preclinical and focused on diseases that fall outside the scope of most for-profit drugmakers. So far, a beta version of Claude Science is available to subscribers with Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, according to Anthropic.

Anthropic first announced its intentions to build out its life sciences business last October. This week’s debut goes further by launching an actual product. While it is powered by existing Claude models like Opus and Sonnet, Anthropic’s pitch is it has designed a range of workflows and connectors to make it immediately useful for scientists. And thanks to the uptake of Claude, Anthropic is expected to launch an IPO soon with a valuation that could surpass $1 trillion.

🇨🇳A congressional committee opened an inquiry into Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer’s use of clinical trial sites in China, Endpoints News reported this week. Merck, Eli Lilly and AbbVie received similar letters, according to Reuters.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, sent the letter to the CEOs of the companies about their clinical trial locations. Some of the sites in China, Moolenaar wrote, are affiliated with the Chinese military or are in the Xinjiang region where the government has sharply repressed the Uyghur population and other minority ethnic groups, mostly Turkic Muslims. 

In the letter, Moolenaar also wrote that “while there is no evidence that BMS has engaged in illegal activity or wrongdoing, conducting clinical trials in China, and in Xinjiang and PRC military hospitals more specifically, exposes American companies to ethical and security risks.” Read more about the situation here.

❌Pivotal data for Amgen’s Tavneos have been retracted from the New England Journal of Medicine. It’s the latest challenge in a monthslong saga for Amgen and its autoimmune drug. 

Two academic authors requested the retraction, citing an ongoing FDA investigation that suggested results for nine patients were reevaluated after the trial was unblinded. Amgen has been going back and forth with the FDA since January, when the agency asked it to voluntarily take Tavneos off the market. The agency has raised concerns about Tavneos’ data and cases of drug-induced liver injury, and accused study personnel of manipulating trial results used for the approval.

Amgen continues to defend Tavneos, and asked for a hearing with the FDA last month. The company has said that a withdrawal wouldn’t be “consistent with the statutory criteria,” nor in the best interest of patients. On Monday, an Amgen spokesperson said the company “takes scientific integrity seriously and respects the role of journals in upholding the peer review process.”