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.
AI-driven rescue and development of failed drug candidates
Ignota Labs is a biotechnology company that identifies, in-licenses and redevelops drug candidates that have failed clinical development due to toxicity. Using deep learning applied to cheminformatics and bioinformatics data, the company resolves the mechanistic basis of safety failures and makes targeted chemical…
Specialist pharma acquiring and developing rare disease therapeutics
Ambrose Healthcare is a UK specialist pharmaceutical company developing treatments for rare diseases and patients in hospital and specialist care settings. The company builds its pipeline through the acquisition and licensing of late-stage clinical assets with existing human safety and efficacy data, targeting…
Targeted radiotheranostics for treatment-resistant solid tumours
Nuclide Therapeutics is a King's College London spin-out developing targeted radiopharmaceuticals for treatment-resistant solid tumours. Its radiotheranostic approach uses tumour-binding molecules labelled with diagnostic or therapeutic radionuclides to identify and attack cancer cells. Lead programmes target ALDH1A1…
Oral small molecule therapies for rare hereditary diseases
KalVista Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the discovery and commercialisation of oral small molecule protease inhibitors for rare diseases with significant unmet need. The company's lead programme targets the kallikrein-kinin system and has produced an approved oral on-demand therapy for…
Preclinical inhibitors of Notch and Mastermind cancer signalling pathways
Anastasis Biotec is a preclinical biotechnology company developing targeted inhibitors of cancer signalling pathways, with a focus on the Notch pathway and its transcriptional co-activator Mastermind. These pathways help drive tumour growth and the survival of cancer stem cells. The company is developing peptide-based…
Data-driven cis-bispecific antibody-drug conjugates for solid tumour cancers
Promatix Biosciences is an oncology drug discovery company developing next-generation bispecific antibody-drug conjugates through data-driven target pairing. Using a proteomics database and computational algorithms, the company identifies antigen combinations enabling selective tumour targeting, aiming to reduce…
AI-designed combination therapies for cancer
Big Picture Bio is a preclinical biotechnology company designing combination therapies for cancer. Its generative model simulates how tumours, immune cells and surrounding tissue interact, and is used to predict which drug combinations, and which sequences of treatment, are most likely to suppress resistant cancer…
Global biopharma focused on severe neurological and immunological diseases
UCB Pharma is the UK subsidiary of UCB S.A., a Belgian biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of treatments for severe neurological and immunological diseases. The UK operation is one of UCB's three global R&D hubs, with capabilities spanning antibody discovery, small molecule development,…
Oxygen-generating nanoparticles to overcome hypoxia in solid tumours
StimOxyGen is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing pH-responsive nanoparticle formulations to address tumour hypoxia, a major barrier to effective cancer treatment. The technology uses a biodegradable polymer coating that dissolves in the acidic tumour microenvironment, transiently generating localised…
Contract antibody discovery, engineering and supply services
Fusion Antibodies is a contract research organisation specialising in preclinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply for pharmaceutical and diagnostic clients. Services span antigen expression, antibody generation, humanisation, affinity maturation, developability optimisation, and stable cell line…
Mitochondrial disease drug discovery subsidiary of Astellas Pharma
Astellas Engineered Small Molecules U.K. is a Cambridge-based drug discovery subsidiary of Astellas Pharma, operating as part of the company's Mitobridge Division alongside its US counterpart Mitobridge Inc. Originally founded as Nanna Therapeutics and acquired by Astellas in 2020, the entity applies a proprietary…
Global specialist pharmaceutical company focused on HIV
ViiV Healthcare is a specialist pharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development, and commercialisation of medicines for HIV treatment and prevention. Its portfolio includes widely used antiretroviral therapies such as Dovato and the long-acting injectable Cabenuva, and it is advancing next-generation…
Clinical-stage biotech developing treatments for multiple myeloma
CellCentric is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing inobrodib, a first-in-class oral inhibitor of the p300/CBP transcription co-activation proteins, for relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. Inobrodib has been evaluated in over 400 patients and holds FDA Fast Track and orphan drug designations.…
Immuno-oncology therapies targeting the nfP2X7 cancer receptor
Biosceptre is a UK-headquartered clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer therapeutics based on its proprietary nfP2X7 platform. The nfP2X7 receptor is a non-functional form of P2X7 expressed on cancer cells across a broad range of tumour types, enabling targeted therapeutic approaches. The pipeline…
Small molecule therapeutics targeting lipid-signalling pathways
Artelo Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule therapeutics that modulate lipid-signalling pathways, including the endocannabinoid system. Its pipeline includes ART27.13, a peripherally selective cannabinoid receptor agonist in Phase 2 for cancer-associated anorexia and…
Intestinal barrier repair therapies for inflammatory bowel disease
Thelior Bio is a University of Oxford spin-out developing therapies for inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Its research focuses on restoring the intestinal epithelial barrier, addressing impaired tissue repair associated with chronic inflammation. The company draws on…
Precision small molecule drugs for obsessive-compulsive disorder
Serenatis Bio is a preclinical-stage biotech developing small molecule drugs to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Its pipeline of three candidates targets distinct neurological mechanisms, including glutamate, AMPA, and dopamine pathways, with a biomarker-driven approach designed to match patients to…
ADC pipeline targeting mutant stem cells in blood cancers
Alethio Therapeutics Limited is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing antibody-drug conjugates for myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of chronic blood cancers. Its pipeline targets the mutant stem and progenitor cells that drive disease progression and fibrosis, with the aim of modifying rather than…
Quantum-informed computational design of covalent drug candidates
Axiom Therapeutics is a London biotechnology company using molecular physics and machine learning to design covalent small-molecule medicines. Its computational drug-discovery platform models interactions between reactive compounds and biological targets, helping design selective inhibitors for difficult-to-drug…
Integrated drug discovery services for biotech and pharma
BioAscent is a Scotland-based integrated drug discovery contract research organisation providing science-led services to biotech, pharmaceutical, and academic customers. Operating from the former MSD R&D site in Newhouse, its capabilities span assay development, high-throughput screening, medicinal and synthetic…