Medicinal Chemistry
Lead optimization services built around the compound, not the contract. Our medicinal chemists run design-make-test-analyze cycles alongside your biology and DMPK data, resolving potency, selectivity and developability liabilities together rather than trading one for another.
With 700+ synthetic and medicinal chemists across six sites, senior program leaders drawn from Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, GSK, and NIH/NCATS, and AI-integrated design applied at every stage, ChemPartner supports programs from initial hit through preclinical candidate — and beyond, into CMC and IND.
End-to-End Discovery
Each discovery stage asks a different question of the chemistry. We staff and structure programs accordingly — so effort goes where the decision actually sits.
Target ID & Assay Development Establishing the disease–target–assay chain, with biology and chemistry aligned on what a meaningful readout looks like before compounds are made.
Hit Identification Screening-led hit discovery drawing on focused and diverse libraries, virtual screening, and fragment approaches — with triage designed to surface tractable chemical matter, not just actives.
Hit-to-Lead Establishing SAR trends that hold. In vitro and in-cell activity paired with early DMPK evaluation, so liabilities surface while the series is still flexible. Typical timeline: 9–12 months.
Lead Optimization Driving toward optimal potency, confirmed target engagement, and in vivo PK/ADME and efficacy — resolving the multi-parameter problem that defines a preclinical candidate. Typical timeline: 6–12 months.
Design–Make–Test–Analyze, Run as One Cycle
The rate limit in medicinal chemistry is rarely a single step — it’s the handoffs between them. Our DMTA cycles run inside one organization, with chemistry, biology, DMPK, and CMC teams on the same program and the same timeline.
- Design — Structure-based and ligand-based design, guided by medicinal chemists who lead the program rather than execute against a list.
- Make — 12+ reactions per chemist per week as a tracked KPI, across 1,000+ fume hoods and a workforce that is more than 45% MSc/PhD.
- Test — Direct access to 700+ in vitro assays, 840+ cancer cell line panels, and in-house DMPK — no external queue between synthesis and data.
- Analyze — Weekly reporting, transparent data, and project leadership with pharma decision-making experience.
Computation Applied Where It Changes Decisions
Our AIDD team integrates machine learning and computational design across the discovery workflow — not as a separate service, but as part of how compounds get prioritized. Virtual screening focuses synthetic effort on the chemical space most likely to yield. Predictive models for ADME, toxicity, and developability flag liabilities before they consume a cycle. And because AIDD is adaptable at any stage, it can join a program already in flight.
- Virtual screening and structure-based design
- Predictive ADME, toxicity, and developability models
- CADD-supported SAR development
- Machine-learning-driven target generation
Chemistry Expertise Across Modalities
Modern discovery rarely stays in one chemical class. Our medicinal chemistry teams work across small molecules, ADCs, PROTACs and other degraders, molecular glues, peptides, and oligonucleotides — with the frontier chemistry expertise these formats demand and dedicated platforms for GPCR and KRAS target classes.
- Small Molecules
- PROTACs & Degraders
- Molecular Glues
- ADC Linker-Payload
- Peptides
- Oligonucleotides
- Carbohydrates
Models Built Around Your Program, Not Ours
Programs change shape. Engagement should be able to change with them.
Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
A dedicated R&D and management team assigned to your program. You provide the target structure; we provide staffing, weekly formal reporting, routine project meetings, and general analytical, reagents, compound management, and shipment — with flexibility to shift priorities, staffing, and cross-functional support as the program evolves.
Fee for Service (FFS)
Defined scope, fixed fee, agreed delivery timeline. Custom synthesis from mg to kg, chiral separation, impurity preparation, and non-GMP through GMP-like scale-up of API and intermediates.
Integrated & Collaborative Programs
Fully integrated discovery programs spanning medicinal chemistry, biologics, in vitro screening, in vivo PD and efficacy, ADME, PK, and early tox — under blended teams and one program lead. For strategic partnerships, we also structure risk-share and milestone-based arrangements.
