SandboxAQ brings its drug discovery models to Claude — no PhD in computing required

Every year, billions are spent and it can take up to ten years to discover a new drug, and most of the time, after all this, the candidate fails. Most AI startups promise to accelerate drug discovery by building increasingly sophisticated models, but SandboxAQ believes the real problem isn't the power of the models: it's access. Instead of asking researchers to learn how to use complex systems or invest in expensive infrastructure, SandboxAQ has integrated its scientific models directly into Claude, Anthropic's chatbot, creating a conversational interface that anyone can use — without a PhD in computer science. This completely changes the rules of the game: you no longer need to be a cloud computing or programming expert to get the most out of molecular simulation. There's an interesting story behind it: SandboxAQ was created as a spin-off of Alphabet, Google's parent company, and its president is Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO. In just a few years, it has raised nearly a billion dollars in investments and built models called LQMs, Large Quantitative Models, based on the laws of physics rather than on patterns in texts. These models can simulate quantum chemistry and predict in advance how a new molecule will behave: in practice, they help scientists understand whether or not it is worth investing time and money in an experiment before even setting foot in the laboratory. Nadia Harhen, SandboxAQ's general manager for AI simulation, says that until now, their clients had to procure the digital infrastructure to run the models themselves, a significant obstacle even for large pharmaceutical and industrial companies. The real leap is right here: now the technological barrier is lowered, and anyone can converse with a frontier model using natural language. While competitors like Chai Discovery and Isomorphic Labs are betting everything on the scientific quality of the models, SandboxAQ is betting that the real paradigm shift will be when anyone can access them without IT specialists. Here's the challenge: the future of drug discovery lies not only in the most advanced models, but in those who can actually use them. If until now you thought that research depended only on those with the best data or algorithms, SandboxAQ's bet is that democratizing access will make the difference. You might find yourself saying that today, all you need to simulate quantum chemistry is a chat, and that behind this revolution are names like Eric Schmidt and investments of nearly a billion. Or that the real innovation is not just in artificial intelligence, but in how we make it accessible. The right interface can change an entire industry. If this vision has made you see drug discovery in a different light, you can press I'm In on Lara Notes — it's the gesture that says: this idea is now yours too. And when you talk about it with someone, perhaps mentioning the story of SandboxAQ or the technological leap that allows everyone to simulate molecules from the comfort of their couch, you can use Shared Offline on Lara Notes to tag that person: that way they'll know that conversation was important to you. This idea comes from TechCrunch and has saved you at least 7 minutes of reading.