Drug Discovery CROs

This page provides a list of curated industry service providers (contract research organizations) that provide outsourced contract drug discovery services of particular interest to drug discovery professionals working at biotechs or pharmaceutical companies.

The table below lists drug discovery CROs specializing in all kinds of drug discovery services, from X-ray crystallography CROs to CROs specializing in assay development, to integrated drug discovery CROs. You can search and explore the table for CRO specializations from chemistry to solid form development to physicochemical property measurement to protein purification and protein crystallization.

If your company would like to be included in this list of drug discovery CROs, contact us with the information for the table.

CompanyTypeEst. EmployeesRelevant Specialty
SelvitaCRO780Selvita is a fully-integrated CRO providing multidisciplinary support from target validation to the selection of clinical candidates, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, structural biology, ADME, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology.
Confluence Discovery TechnologiesCRO45Custom-built solutions and consultation to progress new drug ideas to IND and enhance early clinical pursuits. Experts in mechanistic enzymology, cell biology and immunology, in vivo pharmacology, translational biomarkers, and medicinal chemistry.
Venenum BiodesignCRO28Expertise in assay development, compound profiling, 5.5 million ECLiPS compound library, hit-to-lead, lead optimization, protein production & structural biology, ADME & bioanalytical services
Comparative Bioscience, IncCRO26Expertise in preclinical in vivo studies, surgical and efficacy models, biocompatibility & devices, toxicology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, efficacy, GLP & non-GLP studies, in-house histopathology and immunohistochemistry
BioBlocksCRO19A medicinal chemistry CRO focused on drug discovery from initial hit through identification of development candidates for advancement to phase II clinical trials using our fragment-based Leap-to-Lead™ platform & Syntheverse™ chemistry space.
InvivotekCRO18CRO specializing in the evaluation of therapeutic candidates in rodent models of human disease, animal models and bioassays, in vivo testing of compounds related to immunology and inflammation, oncology, metabolic, cardiovascular and other diseases
PharmOptimaCRO10CRO services include in vivo studies, DMPK/ADME, ocular PD/efficacy, bioanalytical, ligand binding & biological/analytical assays, molecular biology & biochemistry, biomarker & assay dev. Specializing in therapeutic areas in ocular drug development
New England Drug Discovery PartnersCRO13Expertise in discovery chemistry, medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, organic synthesis, analytical services, antibody drug conjugates (ADC), process chemistry and scale-up capabilities
Integrated Analytical SolutionsCRO8Expertise in GLP & non-GLP bioanalytical services, in vitro metabolism, metabolite ID, drug-drug interaction, protein binding, and plasma stability assays, analytical chemistry, release & stability, NCDFA, physiochemical profiling, and assay dev.
NexusPharmaCRO1Expertise in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, cell line-derived xenograft (CDX), syngenic models, & preclinical cancer models of various tumor types for in vivo efficacy studies to validate the biological activity of cancer treatment compounds
ZoBioCRO46ZoBio offers an integrated fragment-based drug discovery engine based on orthogonal technologies and 18 years of experience. The engine consists of high throughput protein engineering, a highly diverse fragment library, proprietary biophysical technologies and complementary structural biology approaches designed to enable the broadest possible target space.
Charnwood MolecularCRO130From target to candidate. Our highly experienced team, covering biology and DMPK through to computational, medicinal and process research chemistry, act together seamlessly to provide the right environment for an integrated solution to drug discovery.
BirdoTechCRO700BirdoTech is a chemistry CRO specializing in medchem support with scale-up capabilities and expertise on various chemistry platforms; such as kinases, GPCRs, PROTACs, peptides, and ADCs. These state-of-the-art research labs are located in China and the US.
PharmaronCRO14,000Synthesis and preclinical discovery services
AlmacCRO3,082API services, CMC, GMP
EvotecCRO3,030High-throughput screening, preclinical discovery services
Sai Life SciencesCRO2,500Integrated drug discovery services, exploratory biology, discovery chemistry, DMPK, toxicology, Genotox., and Comp. Chem.
PromegaCRO2,500Cell-based and biochemical assays, custom assay
MedChemExpressCRO2,500Relevant specialty: small molecules, recombinant proteins, screening libraries, custom synthesis
AragenCRO2,500Chemistry CRO and CDMO
VivaCRO2000Drug discovery one-stop CMC and CDMO service partner
Curia GlobalCRO2,077Medicinal chemistry services and process development
WuXi AppTecCRO22,233An integrated chemistry and biology research platform to create, identify and support preclinical candidates, from discovery to development.
TCG LifesciencesCRO1,200Synthesis and preclinical discovery services
NuvisanCRO1,000Integrated drug discovery CRO
MedicilonCRO1000Drug Discovery CRO
NovasepCRO866Custom synthesis, API manufacturing, membrane filtration
Pharma ResourcesCRO850Focusing on chemistry related CRO/CDMO/CMO services
EurofinsCRO17,158Assay panels
ChemPartnerCRO738Synthesis and preclinical discovery services
Frontage LaboratoriesCRO737Pharmaceutical biotech drugs
BioLegendCRO549Antibodies, flow cytometry, immunoassay kits
Charles RiverCRO10,608In vitro and in vivo pre-clinical research models
AlmeloCRO500Custom synthesis, cGMP manufacturing, biocatalysis
SymeresCRO500Integrated drug discovery & API development
Cayman ChemicalCRO500Preclinical discovery, lipidomics, synthesis, GM
Sygnature DiscoveryCRO500Preclinical services, protein crystallography
BioduroCRO428Synthesis and preclinical discovery services
HitGenCRO397DNA-encoded libraries
Crown BioscienceCRO350In vitro and in vivo pre-clinical research models
SymeresCRO329Medicinal chemistry, parallel chemistry, API
SYNthesis med chemCRO270Synthetic & medicinal chemistry
SchrodingerCRO250Computational chemistry software, molecular modeling
Cobra BiologicsCRO250DNA, gene therapies, immunotherapies, viral vectors
NuChem SciencesCRO240Medicinal chemistry, CMC and biology
NicoyaCRO200Diagnostics, nanotechnology, sensors, lifesciences
NovAliXCRO200Drug discovery, chemistry, biophysics & biology
LakePharmaCRO193Protein sciences
Absorption SystemsCRO157Preclinical DMPK
ParazaCRO155Synthesis and preclinical discovery services
Genesis Drug Discovery & Development (GD3)CRO150Integrated drug discovery & development services
X-ChemCRO120DNA-encoded libraries
EdelrisCRO100AS-MS screening, compound collection, medicinal chem
Reaction BiologyCRO80Assays
Lead Discovery CenterCRO75Integrated small molecule drug discovery
Vernalis (HitGen)CRO75Fragment and structure-based design
SolvoCRO75Drug transporter assays, drug-drug interaction
DomainexCRO70Preclinical discovery services
LCC (Liverpool ChiroChem Ltd)CRO65Chirally-pure scaffolds, fragments and lead
ProterosCRO59Protein crystallography, cryo-EM
BiognosysCRO59Proteomic analysis
Red Glead DiscoveryCRO55Integrated drug discovery services
IktosCRO54 Artificial intelligence for new drug design
BioAscent Discovery LtdCRO51Drug discovery
AxxamCRO51Preclinical Discovery Services
Acme BioscienceCRO50Custom synthesis
Creative Biostructure Drug DiscoveryCRO50Preclinical discovery services based on structure
PionCRO47Analytical services (e.g. LogD)
SB Drug DiscoveryCRO45Assay development, high-throughput screening
SpecsCRO40Compound handling and chemistry services
DiscoverRXCRO40Assay panels, in vitro screening
Apex Molecular LtdCRO40Small molecule synthesis, high potency synthesis
Pelago BioscienceCRO38CETSA® cellular thermal shift assay
Key OrganicsCRO36Provision of intermediates, screening compounds
J-StarCRO34Crystallization, formulation, GMP API
VisikolCRO313D Cell culture, high content screening
Metrion BiosciencesCRO30Cardiac safety, ion channel assays, assay dev
SARomicsCRO25Protein crystallography, NMR & fragment screening
TCG GreenChemCRO25Synthesis and preclinical discovery services
AIM BiotechCRO25In vitro and preclinical drug discovery services
Amuna Pharmaceuticals LLP CRO25Synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry
ChemotargetsCRO25De novo drug design, prediction of safety and efficacy
nanoimagingservicesCRO24CryoEM
Hypha DiscoveryCRO24Drug metabolite synthesis, purification and characterization. We are a specialist CRO supporting pharma companies worldwide through production of metabolites and late-stage drug derivatives. We are experts in scalable synthesis, purification, and identification of metabolites and possess a wealth of experience in the purification and structure elucidation of natural products.
AnalizaCRO23Non-GLP discovery screening, physchem properties
InoviemCRO20Target ID, MoA on human tissues & patient stratification
Quintara DiscoveryCRO14In vitro ADME, GLP, non-GLP bioanalysis
Panlabs (Eurofins)CRO14Assay panels
R2M PharmaCRO13Preclinical drug discovery
Asha PharmaCRO12Solid form screening and selection
CrystalsFirst GmbHCRO10Structure-based drug discovery
The Solubility CompanyCRO10Solid form specific solubility analysis
Chemo DynamicsCRO10GMP infrastructure focused on small molecules
Lotus SeparationsCRO10Chiral separation
PentagritCRO15Efficacy screening, toxicity testing, zebrafish models
MAG-LABCRO10protein ligand complexes, protein sciences
ExamolCRO10Computational Platform/Marketplace
Accelero BiostructuresCRO5Structure-based drug discovery
UbiquigentCRO5Deubiquitinating enzyme assays (DUB) and kits
SynSmart Rasayan Research LLCCROcustom synthesis services