Novo Nordisk using Claude AI to draft clinical reports

Maker of popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk, has taken a leap forward in pharmaceutical documentation, putting AI to work where human writers once toiled for weeks. The Danish pharmaceutical powerhouse is using Claude, an AI model by Anthropic, to draft clinical study reports — documents that can stretch hundreds of pages.

The results? What once took 15 weeks now takes less than 10 minutes. And the kicker? The company's entire AI spend for a year is less than the salary of one writer.

How does it work?

For years, the company dabbled with AI-powered writing tools, testing everything from OpenAI's ChatGPT to Meta's Llama. But accuracy was a major stumbling block. As Louise Lind Skov, Novo Nordisk's head of technology strategy, put it, early AI models often made so many errors that fixing them took longer than rewriting from scratch.

That changed with the introduction of Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The key breakthrough? Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) — a technique that drastically improves AI reliability by letting it pull verified information from trusted sources. Here's how it plays out in practice:

• AI generates a clinical definition of obesity that a human expert deems accurate.
• That definition is then locked in, ensuring consistency across future reports.
• The more it's used, the better the AI gets at maintaining precision.

The results speak for themselves. Where once 50 writers were needed to assemble a report, now just three can do the job with Claude's help.

Why does it matter?

Pharmaceutical and insurance industries have long been wary of AI, especially for legally sensitive documents. One error in a drug approval report can mean regulatory headaches, financial losses, or worse — risks to patient safety. But Skov notes that Novo Nordisk has moved AI "rapidly from the experimental phase to the development phase," a speed of progress rarely seen in such a highly regulated space.

Efficiency is another major win. With AI handling the bulk of drafting, human writers can shift focus to higher-value work. And while no layoffs are planned, the company does intend to slow down hiring in writing roles and divert resources elsewhere.

The context

AI in pharma isn't new, but trust has been the missing piece. Companies have tiptoed around automation, cautious of errors that could spiral into costly legal troubles. But Novo Nordisk's success may change the game.

• AI is now accurate enough to handle critical, regulatory-bound documentation.
• Cost savings are significant — Claude costs less annually than a single writer's salary.
• The shift doesn't mean job losses (yet), but it does mean fewer new hires in writing roles.

As industries look for ways to streamline operations without sacrificing quality, Novo Nordisk may have just cracked the code. AI isn't replacing human expertise — it's amplifying it.