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.
Cambridge cancer research institute advancing discovery and clinical translation
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute is a cancer research institute within the University of Cambridge, investigating tumour biology, early detection and treatment. Its research groups study cancer evolution, genomics and the tumour microenvironment, using imaging and computational approaches to improve diagnosis…
Manufacturer of small molecule and peptide reagents for life science research
Tocris Bioscience is a manufacturer and supplier of high-purity small molecule and peptide research reagents serving the global life science community. Its catalogue of over 4,500 products includes receptor agonists and antagonists, ion channel modulators, enzyme inhibitors, signalling pathway tools, and fluorescent…
ML-driven antibody discovery platform for solid tumour therapeutics
LabGenius Therapeutics is a company developing next-generation therapeutic antibodies using its closed-loop machine learning platform. The platform integrates AI, robotic automation and high-throughput experimentation to co-optimise multispecific antibodies across potency, selectivity and manufacturability…
Clinical-stage biopharma targeting cancer immunotherapy and obesity
Poolbeg Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule therapies for high unmet medical needs. Its lead programme, POLB 001, is a p38 MAP kinase inhibitor in clinical trials for prevention of cytokine release syndrome associated with CAR-T and bispecific antibody cancer immunotherapies.…
Nanotechnology drug delivery platform for precision medicines
Nanomerics is a UK speciality pharmaceutical company developing precision medicines using its proprietary technology, a polymer nanotechnology platform that improves the bioavailability and targeting of water-insoluble drugs and peptides. The technology enables delivery via nasal, ocular, oral, and blood-brain barrier…
Engineered therapeutic red blood cells for rare metabolic and other diseases
Scarlet Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing a platform for generating therapeutic red blood cells (tRBCs). Erythroid cell lines are genetically engineered to produce red blood cells carrying high concentrations of therapeutic proteins, exploiting their natural tissue distribution, 120-day circulating…
Small molecule inhibitors targeting somatic expansion in neurodegeneration
LoQus23 Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing oral small molecule inhibitors of DNA mismatch repair for the treatment of Huntington's disease and other triplet repeat expansion disorders. The company targets MutSβ, a protein complex whose aberrant activity drives somatic expansion and progressive…
Circular RNA therapeutics and scalable RNA production
RNAvate is a Cambridge biotechnology spinout developing circular RNA (circRNA) technologies for RNA medicines, founded from research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Its platform focuses on scalable circRNA synthesis and purification to support durable therapeutic protein expression. Published laboratory…
AI toxicology prediction platform reducing animal testing
Consone AI is a software company developing AI-driven toxicology prediction tools for the drug development process. Its platform uses machine learning algorithms trained on a curated database of over 80,000 chemical compounds to predict toxicological outcomes across multiple species, from preclinical models through to…
3D multi-omics platform for genetically validated drug target discovery
Enhanced Genomics is a biotechnology company developing a proprietary 3D multi-omics platform that maps genome-wide chromatin interactions to identify genetically validated drug targets for common diseases. Using patented technology integrated with a human cell type-specific multi-omics atlas, the platform links…
First-in-class small molecule therapeutics targeting DNA uracilation in cancer
CV6 Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class small molecule drugs for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Its lead asset CV6-168 is a specific inhibitor of the enzyme dUTPase, inducing uracil misincorporation into cancer cell DNA, triggering DNA damage and immune activation.…
Stem cell platform for precision psychiatry and drug discovery
MeOmics Precision Medicine is a biotechnology company developing a precision psychiatry platform that combines genomics, phenomics, and stem cell-based cellular assays to generate biomarkers for severe mental illness. Patient-derived neurons, stimulated via multi-electrode array recording, produce electrophysiological…
Fluorinated building blocks and fine chemicals for research and pharma
Apollo Scientific is a manufacturer and supplier of fine chemicals for research and pharmaceutical development, specialising in aromatic, heterocyclic and fluorinated building blocks. It holds a large stock of building blocks and intermediates for rapid dispatch, alongside reagents for life science research. The…
High-performance counter-current chromatography instruments and services
Dynamic Extractions is a Welsh instruments and contract services company specialising in the design, manufacture, and application of High Performance Counter Current Chromatography technology. Its range of liquid-liquid separation processors enables rapid, scalable purification of complex mixtures for pharmaceutical…
First-in-class small molecule inhibitors of RNA-modifying enzymes
STORM Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the field of RNA epigenetics, developing small molecule inhibitors of RNA-modifying enzymes as a new class of cancer treatment. Its lead programme STC-15, a METTL3 inhibitor, was the first RNA-modifying enzyme inhibitor to enter human clinical…
Targeted protein degradation platform for neurodegenerative disease
TRIMTECH Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing small-molecule degraders that selectively remove disease-causing protein aggregates while preserving the functional, non-aggregated forms of the same proteins. The platform is built on research into the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM21, conducted over nearly two…
Extracellular vesicle platform for consistent, scalable regenerative therapeutics
Mesenbio is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a cell line platform that produces a consistent, scalable supply of therapeutic extracellular vesicles, addressing a key bottleneck limiting this treatment class. The company's cells generate naturally bioactive vesicles with combined…
TCR bispecific immunotherapies for cancer and infectious disease
Immunocore is a commercial-stage biopharma developing T cell receptor bispecific immunotherapies. Its lead product tebentafusp received FDA approval in 2022 for metastatic uveal melanoma and generated $400 million in revenue in 2025. Three Phase 3 trials are enrolling across melanoma indications, with topline data…
Oncology drug discovery and IP licensing from rural Wales
Morvus Technology is a privately owned pharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development, and out-licensing of novel oncology drugs and platform technologies. The company's portfolio includes ProTide nucleoside chemistry, out-licensed to NuCana plc for clinical development; an inhaled anti-tumour agent for…
Microfluidic 3D disease models for preclinical drug screening
ScreenIn3D is a biotechnology company and contract research organisation providing drug screening using three-dimensional human cell and tissue models. Its microfluidic platform supports tumour spheroids, organoids and co-cultures, enabling researchers to assess candidate efficacy, toxicity and drug combinations from…