Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.Concept Life Sciences has signed a strategic partnership with OpenBench to deliver success-based drug discovery services targeted at early-stage biotech companies.
OpenBench employs its structure-based AI to virtually screen trillions of compounds. Credit: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
The collaboration aims to accelerate hit identification for these companies through a fee-for-success approach.
It will combine OpenBench’s AI-based discovery platform with Concept Life Sciences’ expertise in medicinal chemistry, in-vitro screening, and validation.
OpenBench employs its structure-based AI to virtually screen trillions of compounds, synthesising select, high-potential hits.
These compounds are then sent to Concept Life Sciences for rapid in-vitro testing and validation.
OpenBench bears the initial discovery costs, charging a fee only once validated hits are delivered, effectively shifting scientific and financial risk away from the client.
Concept Life Sciences increases the programme’s value through integrated ‘design-make-test’ approaches, ensuring swift and seamless progression from hit to developable chemical entity.
The combined offering aims to guide clients from target to validated hit series within six months. This partnership intends to support multiple therapeutic modalities and indications.
Concept Life Sciences North America business development head Steven Holshouser said: “Biotechs need faster, lower-risk paths to high-quality chemical starting points — particularly in today’s funding environment.
“By combining OpenBench’s success-based discovery model with our integrated development capabilities, we’re giving clients a highly efficient route from target to validated, developable hits.”
OpenBench chief scientific officer Lewis Martin said: “Our mission is to remove the biggest barrier in early discovery: upfront cost and uncertainty. We deliver validated chemical leads before our partners spend a dollar, enabling biotech companies to focus resources on advancing programmes with real potential.”
With current constraints on biotech funding, this collaboration offers a capital-efficient alternative to traditional research and development (R&D) models, reducing early-stage costs and risks while supporting rapid pipeline development and downstream optimisation.
