Drug discovery companies identify, validate and develop new therapeutic candidates for the prevention and treatment of disease. The sector combines biology, chemistry, data science and clinical expertise to bring new medicines from concept to clinic.
This category includes companies working on:
Browse 495 UK drug discovery companies below.
Liver-directed RNA medicines to restore function in chronic liver disease
Apterna is a preclinical biotechnology company developing RNA-based medicines to restore function in damaged livers. Its lead programme is a liver-directed therapy, given by injection under the skin every few months, that silences a single gene which limits the liver's ability to recover from injury. Animal studies…
Virus-like particle therapeutics for chronic inflammatory skin conditions
Glen Clova Scientific is a biotechnology company developing active biologic drugs for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, with an initial focus on immuno-dermatology. Its proprietary virus-like particle platform is designed to induce targeted immune responses against self-produced proteins that drive…
Microfluidic instruments for protein interaction and single-cell analysis
Fluidic Sciences is a company developing and supplying instruments for biopharmaceutical research, combining two complementary technology platforms. Its core offering covers in-solution protein interaction characterisation without immobilisation, alongside a high-throughput picodroplet platform for single-cell…
Novel antibiotic-sparing therapeutics for chronic wound care
ONYA Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing novel pharmaceutical treatments for acute and chronic wounds. The company's pipeline centres on a patented controlled-release drug delivery technology designed to manage wound exudate and reduce reliance on antibiotics, addressing antimicrobial resistance in…
Integrated CRO services from drug discovery to manufacture
Charles River Laboratories is a global contract research organisation providing integrated preclinical drug discovery and development services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic clients. UK operations span multiple sites offering medicinal chemistry, biology, ADME/PK, structural biology, immunology, in vivo…
DNA nanoprobes for intracellular biomarker profiling in neurodegeneration
Esya Labs is a precision biomarker company using patented DNA nanoprobes to measure ion signatures within intracellular organelles including endosomes and lysosomes. The technology enables ratiometric quantification of subcellular chemical states in living cells, with applications in early detection of…
ADC oncology company developing novel spliceosome-modulating payloads
Akari Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharma company developing next-generation bi-functional antibody-drug conjugates for cancer treatment. Its proprietary ADC platform centres on PH1, a novel spliceosome-modulating small molecule payload designed to disrupt RNA splicing in tumour cells and activate anti-tumour…
Immunotherapeutics targeting drug-resistant bacterial infections
Centauri Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing treatments for life-threatening infectious diseases using its proprietary platform. The technology uses synthetic bifunctional molecules that recruit and redirect naturally occurring anti-glycan antibodies to target pathogens, engaging both…
AI-ready toxicity datasets for preclinical drug discovery
Biolligence is a biotechnology company developing AI-ready toxicity datasets and predictive tools for the drug discovery industry. The company combines deep learning algorithms with stem cell-derived in vitro models and clinical data to generate mechanistic toxicity information aimed at reducing dependence on animal…
Recombinant proteins, antibodies and reagents for drug development
ACROBiosystems is a global supplier of recombinant proteins, antibodies, kits and GMP-grade reagents supporting biopharmaceutical research and development. Products are used across the drug development continuum, from target discovery and candidate screening through to CMC development and clinical production. The…
DNA topoisomerase enzymes and substrates for drug discovery
Inspiralis is a John Innes Centre spinout supplying DNA-modifying enzymes, substrates and assay kits to pharmaceutical and academic researchers. Its product range centres on topoisomerases, enzymes that regulate DNA topology and represent validated targets for antibiotic and anticancer drug development. Alongside its…
DNA damage response platform targeting hard-to-treat solid tumours
Artios Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule therapeutics that target DNA damage response pathways in cancer cells. The company's pipeline includes alnodesertib, an ATR inhibitor advancing toward late-stage development in ATM-deficient solid tumours, and ART6043, a DNA…
Enterprise biopharma software for discovery, analytics and development
Genedata is a scientific software company supplying enterprise platforms for biopharmaceutical research and development. Its systems manage and analyse high-throughput screening, biologics discovery, mass spectrometry, next-generation sequencing, bioprocess development and manufacturing data. They connect laboratory…
Global biopharma with UK R&D centre on the Wirral Peninsula
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is a global biopharmaceutical company with a long-established UK R&D site at Moreton on the Wirral Peninsula and its UK and Ireland commercial headquarters in Uxbridge. The Moreton facility, expanded in 2025, conducts chemistry, manufacturing and control activities supporting pharmaceutical…
Engineered hybrid interferon therapeutics for viral and immune-mediated disease
ILC Therapeutics is a pre-clinical biotechnology company developing hybrid interferons, an engineered cytokine drug class combining favourable attributes of multiple naturally occurring interferon subtypes. The platform rationally designs novel candidates with reduced toxicity and pleiotropic activity across multiple…
AI platform designing vaccines against current and future pathogens
Baseimmune is a biotechnology company developing a deep learning platform for computational vaccine antigen design. The platform integrates genomic, epidemiological, immunological, and evolutionary data to generate novel synthetic antigens drawn from across an entire pathogen genome, enabling the design of vaccines…
Clinical-stage rare disease biotech acquiring deprioritised pharma assets
Mereo BioPharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for rare diseases. Founded in 2015, its business model centres on acquiring clinical-stage programmes deprioritised by large pharmaceutical companies and advancing them through further development. Lead programmes include…
Preclinical CRO for pharmaceutical and agrochemical drug development
Labcorp Early Development Laboratories is a major nonclinical contract research organisation operating from its Harrogate campus in North Yorkshire. The facility provides preclinical pharmaceutical development services including safety pharmacology, toxicology, pathology, bioanalytical testing, and drug metabolism and…
No-code digital experiment platform for life science R&D
Synthace provides cloud-based software that enables life science researchers to design, automate and analyse experiments without writing code. Its platform integrates with laboratory automation hardware, structures experimental data and applies design of experiments methodologies, with a primary focus on assay…
Small molecule protein degraders targeting oncology and CNS disease
Kesmalea Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing oral small molecule therapeutics that modulate protein homeostasis through targeted protein degradation and stabilisation. The company's platform is designed to convert the potency of protein degrader approaches into orally bioavailable, CNS-penetrant small…