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.
Generative AI platform for T cell receptor and antibody therapeutics
Etcembly is a biotech company using generative AI to discover and engineer T cell receptor and antibody therapeutics. The company's platform applies large language models to TCR sequence data to design candidates with high affinity and selectivity for cancer and autoimmune disease targets. Its lead programme, ETC-101,…
Somatic genomics for genetically validated drug target discovery
Quotient Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing medicines from genetic differences between cells within the same person. Its somatic genomics platform combines sensitive DNA sequencing, cell analysis and computational biology to identify mutations linked to disease resistance or susceptibility. These…
Small molecule drugs targeting intrinsically disordered proteins in cancer
Kodiform Therapeutics is a drug discovery company developing first-in-class small molecule inhibitors against intrinsically disordered protein targets in cancer, a class historically considered undruggable due to the absence of stable binding pockets. The company uses intracellular antibody technology to identify and…
Platform making human microbiology computable for drug discovery
Outpost Bio is a biotechnology company building predictive models of human microbial ecosystems by integrating automated wet lab experimentation with machine learning. Its Lab-in-the-Loop platform generates large-scale datasets on microbe-host and microbe-drug interactions, with the aim of predicting how microbial…
Lab-grown human muscle platform for preclinical drug testing and safety assessment
Myomaker Bio is a UK-based CRO specialising in pre-clinical muscle biology. The company has developed a platform of lab-grown human skeletal muscle tissues and organs that replicate the structure and function of native muscle, enabling researchers to study drug response, toxicity, injury and regeneration under…
AI-powered cell simulation platform targeting ageing and age-driven diseases
Shift Bioscience is a biotechnology company developing an AI-powered virtual cell platform to identify novel therapeutic targets for cellular rejuvenation. Its proprietary single-cell ageing clock measures epigenetic age at high throughput, feeding machine learning models that predict gene combinations and small…
AI-powered biomedical evidence analysis and drug development research
rodent2human is a biomedical software company developing AI tools to support drug discovery and translational research. Its evidence-analysis platform combines scientific literature, biological databases and computational approaches to investigate therapeutic targets, mechanisms, safety signals and clinical relevance.…
Anti-virulence drug discovery from natural bioactive compounds
Neem Biotech is a Wales-based drug discovery company developing novel non-traditional antimicrobial treatments derived from naturally inspired compounds. The company specialises in quorum sensing inhibitors and anti-biofilm agents, with programmes targeting wound infection and cystic fibrosis. Its discovery approach…
Novel ADC payloads targeting NMT enzymes in cancer
Myricx Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel class of antibody-drug conjugate payloads based on inhibition of N-myristoyltransferase, an enzyme essential to cancer cell survival. Its NMTi payload chemistry platform addresses limitations of existing ADC payloads, including resistance and…
Synthetic VHH antibody libraries and discovery services
Isogenica is a contract discovery company specialising in VHH single-domain antibody discovery, offering what it describes as the world's largest synthetic VHH library alongside its proprietary screening platform. The company partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to identify high-affinity antibody…
Oral small-molecule therapies targeting autoimmune disease pathways
SMIN Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing oral medicines for autoimmune diseases. Its drug discovery platform studies interactions between proteins to identify therapeutic compounds, with an initial focus on the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn), which regulates immunoglobulin G (IgG). The company is…
AI-enabled small molecule drug discovery
PharmEnable is a Cambridge-based drug discovery company developing novel small molecule therapeutics for targets that are inaccessible to biologics, including intracellular targets and those behind the blood-brain barrier. Its proprietary platform integrates AI and advanced medicinal chemistry to explore undercharted…
Clinical-stage anti-infectives targeting antimicrobial resistance and infectious disease
NovaBiotics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class anti-infective therapies for difficult-to-treat infectious diseases, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance. Its pipeline is built on two proprietary platforms: an anti-infective peptide platform yielding antifungal and antibacterial…
Small molecule theranostics to improve transplant outcomes
Kairos Biotech is an early-stage biotechnology company developing proprietary small molecules and nanoscale-engineered binders for application in transplant diagnostics and targeted immunotherapy. The company's theranostic approach identifies molecules capable of detecting donor-specific alloreactivity and further…
AI-driven natural product discovery for neurological therapeutics
Pangea Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Its proprietary AI platform screens natural and plant-derived chemical space, integrating ethnobotanical data with machine learning to identify novel CNS drug candidates with…
NANOSTACKS organ models for preclinical drug safety research
Revivocell is a Lancaster University spin-out developing modular human microphysiological systems for preclinical drug discovery and toxicology. Its NANOSTACKS platform uses stackable cell-culture modules to assemble multilayer tissue models, including liver, neuronal and interconnected organ systems. The company…
Computational cell models for novel drug target discovery
Oppilotech is a UK biotechnology company that uses systems biology and machine learning to build high-resolution computational models of cells and bacteria. Its proprietary platform simulates biochemical pathways to identify viable drug targets and generate first-in-class discovery programmes. The company's primary…
Synthetic aptamer binders as antibody alternatives for research
Aptamer Group is a life sciences company developing synthetic nucleic acid-based affinity binders as high-performance alternatives to antibodies. Selected via its proprietary SELEX-derived platform, the binders are customised against protein, peptide, cell, and small molecule targets for applications across drug…
Organ-on-chip devices and preclinical drug testing services
DLOC Biosystems is a biotechnology company developing patented organ-on-chip and human-on-chip technology for preclinical drug testing. Its microfluidic chips enable cells to grow into three-dimensional tissues that preserve in vivo properties, supporting more accurate drug safety and efficacy testing than…
Ion channel drug discovery platform for rare CNS disorders
Autifony Therapeutics is a clinical-stage UK biotech developing small molecule modulators of Kv3 voltage-gated potassium channels for rare genetic CNS disorders. Lead programmes target Fragile X syndrome and rare myoclonic epilepsy syndromes, with preclinical work extending to schizophrenia, hearing loss, and…