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.
Proprietary phage display platform for therapeutic antibody discovery
RxBiologics is a Cambridge-based antibody discovery CRO and subsidiary of RxCelerate. Its proprietary phage display library platform incorporates in-line optimisation technology modelled on B cell affinity maturation, designed to generate clinic-ready antibody candidates with drug-like properties from first selection.…
Molecular imaging and targeted cancer therapy agents
Edinburgh Molecular Imaging is a biopharmaceutical company developing molecular imaging and targeted therapeutic agents for cancer and other diseases. Its research includes fluorescent peptide probes for image-guided surgery and radiolabelled compounds directed at c-Met, a receptor expressed in several tumour types.…
Bioanalytical and toxicology laboratory for pharmaceutical and clinical research
Analytical Services International is a GLP and GCP-compliant bioanalytical laboratory providing mass spectrometry-based services to pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations. Services include assay development, small molecule clinical bioanalysis, pharmacokinetic sample analysis, and…
Small molecule remyelination therapeutics for neurological diseases
Pheno Therapeutics is a Scottish clinical-stage biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics that promote remyelination by boosting the function of oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system. Its lead programme PTD802, a selective GPR17 antagonist licensed from UCB, received MHRA clinical trial…
Precision oncology biotech targeting novel DNA damage response pathways
Nodus Oncology is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing small molecule inhibitors against novel DNA damage response targets for molecularly defined cancer patient populations. The company's pipeline is focused on synthetic lethality and collateral vulnerabilities in tumours with specific DNA repair…
AI-driven delivery platform for siRNA therapies beyond the liver
Undecimal Bio is a biotechnology company developing targeted delivery technologies for small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics beyond the liver. Its DELiveri platform combines large-scale combinatorial chemistry, functional cell-based screening and AI to identify synthetic conjugates that transport siRNA into…
Antisense oligonucleotide therapies for TUBB4A-associated leukodystrophies
SynaptixBio is a biotechnology company developing antisense oligonucleotide therapies for severe inherited leukodystrophies. Its lead programme targets TUBB4A-associated hypomyelinating disorders, including hypomyelination with atrophy of the basal ganglia and cerebellum (H-ABC). The approach uses synthetic…
Long-acting eye-drop matrix technology for chronic ocular surface disease
Healome Therapeutics is a University of Birmingham spin-out developing a proprietary eye-drop matrix technology that improves drug retention, lubrication and healing on the eye surface. Unlike conventional eye drops, which clear within minutes and often require dosing many times a day, Healome's platform behaves like…
Phase 3 urcosimod therapy for neuropathic corneal pain
OKYO Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing topical therapies for neuropathic corneal pain and other ocular surface conditions. Its lead candidate, urcosimod (formerly OK-101), is a chemerin receptor agonist designed to modulate inflammation and corneal pain signalling. Phase 2a testing…
AI-driven drug discovery targeting intrinsically disordered proteins
Peptone is a translational biophysics company developing novel therapeutics against intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), a class of structurally dynamic proteins implicated in cancer, inflammation and metabolic disease. The company combines hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, high-performance…
Constrained bicyclic peptide conjugates for targeted cancer therapy
Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of therapeutics based on short synthetic peptides constrained by a small molecule scaffold into two loops, conferring high-affinity target binding with the tissue penetration of small molecules. Its lead programme, a…
Oral microbiome therapeutics for gastrointestinal and hepatic disease
EnteroBiotix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing orally delivered, full-spectrum microbiome therapeutics for diseases linked to gut microbiome disruption. Its lead asset EBX-102-02 demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in irritable bowel syndrome in Phase 2a trials, with a Phase 2b study…
Engineered biologics with conditional activation for precision cancer immunotherapy
Switch Biologics is a UK biotechnology company developing engineered protein biologics for cancer immunotherapy. The company applies directed evolution and protein engineering to build conditionally activated therapeutics that respond to two simultaneous molecular signals, a design intended to concentrate activity…
GPCR-targeted small molecule therapeutics
Liminal BioSciences is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics that modulate G protein-coupled receptor pathways. The company targets metabolic, inflammatory, and fibrotic diseases using an integrated drug discovery platform combining…
AI-driven target identification and drug discovery from omics data
Intelligent OMICS is a biotechnology company applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to drug discovery and diagnostics. Its proprietary platform analyses transcriptomic, genomic, and proteomic datasets to identify novel biological targets and disease drivers. The company offers fee-for-service target…
Small molecule drug discovery platform focused on immuno-inflammation
C4X Discovery (C4XD) is a UK drug discovery company developing small molecule drug candidates using its proprietary computational and structural chemistry platform. It applies enhanced candidate molecule design and patient stratification capabilities to generate drug candidates across immuno-inflammatory disease…
Engineered T-regulatory cell therapies for immune-mediated diseases
Quell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage UK biotech developing engineered T-regulatory (Treg) cell therapies for immune-mediated diseases, using its proprietary technology to engineer Tregs with enhanced persistence and potency. Its lead candidate QEL-001 is in the Phase 1/2 LIBERATE trial for liver transplant…
Precision oncology drug discovery via targeted protein degradation
Dark Blue Therapeutics is a precision oncology biotech focused on discovering and developing first-in-class small molecule drugs. The company applies targeted protein degradation to exploit novel cancer vulnerabilities, with a lead programme targeting the MLLT1/3 proteins implicated in acute myeloid leukaemia. Its…
Precision bacteriocin antibiotics targeting drug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens
Glox Therapeutics is a Scottish biotech developing a pipeline of engineered protein bacteriocins as precision antibiotics against drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Spun out of the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford in 2023, the company…
siRNA therapeutics targeting liver-expressed disease genes
Silence Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing siRNA therapeutics using its proprietary platform. The platform enables precise silencing of disease-associated genes expressed in the liver, without permanently altering DNA. Its pipeline addresses cardiovascular disease, haematological…