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.
Preclinical CRO delivering integrated drug discovery and development services
Selvita is a contract research organisation providing integrated drug discovery and development services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The company supports projects from target validation through preclinical candidate nomination, with expertise in medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, DMPK and protein…
Medicinal and computational chemistry services for drug discovery
Sandexis Medicinal Chemistry is a specialist consultancy providing medicinal and computational chemistry services for small-molecule drug discovery. Its scientists support hit identification, molecular design, virtual screening, docking, chemical database interrogation, project evaluation and lead optimisation.…
Translational CRO offering oncology and women's health assay services
Inaphaea BioLabs is a translational contract research organisation based at MediCity Nottingham, offering cell-based assays and patient-derived cell (PDC) models to support early-stage drug discovery and preclinical development. The company specialises in oncology and women's health, providing biochemical and…
Integrated outsourced drug discovery and development platform
RxCelerate is a contract research organisation providing fully integrated drug discovery and development services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Based at Babraham Research Campus, the company offers end-to-end programme delivery spanning computational design, antibody discovery, medicinal chemistry, in vitro…
AI-driven drug discovery targeting necrosis and age-related disease
LinkGevity is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing anti-necrotic therapeutics for age-related and degenerative diseases. Founded in 2023 and based at Babraham Research Campus, the company's proprietary Blueprint Theory of Ageing identifies necrosis as a key driver of biological decline, informing its…
Novel peptide-based therapeutics and biomarkers for neurodegeneration
Neuro-Bio is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing a first-in-class therapeutic approach to Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. Its research centres on T14, a 14 amino acid bioactive peptide derived from acetylcholinesterase, which the company has identified as a potential…
Small-molecule anti-biofilm add-on therapy for antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infections
BioTryp Therapeutics is a UK-based drug discovery company developing small-molecule therapies that inhibit bacterial biofilm formation. The company's lead programme is an oral add-on therapy designed to be used alongside existing antibiotics, targeting a bacterial protein conserved across more than 85 species to…
Isoform-specific antibody therapeutics for vascular disease
IsomAb is a biotechnology company developing isoform-specific antibody therapeutics for serious vascular diseases. Its lead programme, ISM-001, targets VEGF-A165b, an anti-angiogenic splice isoform implicated in peripheral arterial disease and chronic limb-threatening ischaemia. The company uses a…
Oral thermostable vaccine platform for infectious diseases
iosBio is a biotechnology company developing thermostable oral vaccines using adenoviral vector delivery. Its platform protects vaccine vectors to survive stomach transit and release in the lower small intestine, inducing mucosal and systemic immunity without cold chain requirements or needle administration. The lead…
Rare and serious disease therapeutics with Cambridge R&D hub
Insmed is a US biopharmaceutical company with commercial-stage and late-pipeline products spanning respiratory, inflammatory and rare neurological diseases. Its Cambridge facility at Babraham Research Campus, established through the 2023 acquisition of Adrestia, leads drug discovery using the company's synthetic…
Small molecule therapies for keratin-related skin disorders
Mariposa Therapeutics is a Welsh preclinical biopharma company developing disease-modifying treatments for epidermolysis bullosa simplex and other keratin-related skin disorders. Its lead compound, MP5219, is a synthetic analogue of ajoene that activates surrogate keratin expression to compensate for the underlying…
Biomedical discovery institute researching the molecular basis of disease
The MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences is a biomedical discovery research institute studying the molecular and physiological basis of health and disease. Scientists and clinicians collaborate across three core research areas, including epigenetics and stem cell development, genes and metabolism, and quantitative…
Antibody therapeutics for inflammatory and autoimmune disease
MabGalaxy develops antibody therapeutics for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, with scientific operations linked to Cambridge's Babraham Research Campus. Its discovery approach combines immune-system biology with artificial intelligence to support antibody design and selection. The company aims to shorten the…
Human iPSC-derived disease models and drug discovery services
Axol Bioscience is a biotechnology company supplying human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cells and research services for disease modelling and drug discovery. Its portfolio includes neurons, cardiomyocytes, retinal organoids, retinal pigment epithelium and skin cell models, alongside culture media and custom…
Global biopharma with UK R&D hub in Hertfordshire
Roche Products is the UK pharmaceutical arm of F. Hoffmann-La Roche, headquartered at Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. The site employs over 1,900 people and serves as a primary hub for early-stage drug discovery, clinical development, computational sciences, and commercial operations. The UK operation contributes…
AI-guided synthetic lethality drug discovery for oncology
Evariste is a drug discovery company developing small-molecule inhibitors of synthetic lethal targets in cancer. Its computational platform combines machine learning, multimodal biological data and molecular modelling to identify therapeutic targets, design candidate compounds and prioritise laboratory testing. The…
AI platform engineering molecular glue drugs for undruggable targets
Ternary Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing an AI-driven platform for the rational design of molecular glue therapeutics. Molecular glues are small molecules that induce proximity between two proteins, enabling targeted degradation or modulation of disease-driving targets that lack…
AI-enabled biologics discovery and therapeutic development
Divergence Labs develops new medicines by combining molecular engineering, machine learning and high-throughput biological experimentation. Its Cambridge research team integrates antibody and biologics discovery, cell engineering and automated screening to identify and optimise therapeutic candidates. Proprietary…
Genomics platform developing RNA therapies for chronic liver disease
Ochre Bio is a biotechnology company developing RNA therapeutics for chronic liver disease using a platform built on large-scale human liver datasets. The platform integrates gene perturbation atlases, single-cell genomics from perfused donor livers, and machine learning to identify and validate disease-modifying drug…
Complex molecule synthesis and chemistry-driven cancer drug discovery
New Path Molecular Research is a Cambridge-based chemistry company spun out from the laboratory of Professor Steve Ley at the University of Cambridge. The company specialises in the synthesis of complex functional molecules, including natural products, macrocycles and peptides, using flow chemistry and…