ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) announced a multi-year collaboration with Anthropic to deploy Claude AI models across its clinical trial operations, according to a company press release.

The partnership will integrate Anthropic's Claude models into ICON's Orbis platform, the company's agentic AI system. ICON plans to develop four capabilities within Orbis: site intelligence and study planning, predictive enrollment monitoring, protocol optimization, and ecosystem integration that allows clients to access ICON's data within Claude directly.

ICON will deploy Claude across the organization using a role-based approach, including Claude Code for software developers, Claude for knowledge teams, and Claude Science for scientific and clinical staff.

Barry Balfe, Chief Executive Officer of ICON, said: "By combining ICON's clinical development expertise, global delivery model and proprietary trial intelligence with Anthropic's frontier AI capabilities, we believe we can help sponsors make better decisions earlier, execute studies with greater precision and ultimately accelerate the delivery of medicines to patients."

Pip White, Head of Ireland, UK and Northern Europe at Anthropic, noted that enrollment delays affect up to 80% of clinical trials, adding: "This is exactly the kind of operational challenge that ICON's trial-delivery expertise, paired with Claude, is well suited to address."

ICON, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, employs approximately 40,200 people across 55 countries.