BioAscent, a provider of integrated drug discovery services, reports a 50 per cent increase in demand from biotech and 'virtual' biotech companies for its outsourced compound management services so far in 2021. This follows a doubling of compound management services from 2018 to 2020 – also primarily driven by biotech customers.
The company provides compound management to clients in the UK, US, Europe, and Australia, with new US biotech customers becoming the biggest contributor to the company’s compound management growth. Key to this success with biotechs of all sizes is BioAscent’s ability to offer easy and cost-effective access to big-pharma calibre compound management capabilities and expertise at its €20 million facility.
BioAscent manages libraries of all sizes – ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of compounds. With demonstrable success in cost-effectively and securely managing compounds to accelerate design-make-test cycles for its clients, 2021 has seen exceptional milestones:
- Compound management revenue has grown by 50 per cent, primarily driven by biotech customers
- Biotech customer base has also grown by over 50 per cent. One third of customers are US-based biotechs, and this proportion is growing
- 80 per cent of its largest customers benefit from the company’s integrated discovery services, including compound management plus chemistry and/or biology
- Customer feedback stresses key drivers in using BioAscent’s compound management services include: flexibility, security, speed of processing and delivery, combined with robust inventory management and ordering
'Key to our success is that we offer a secure infrastructure and rapid service that is significantly ahead of other CROs', said Paul Smith, BioAscent’s CEO. 'We offer a number of benefits that are especially critical to innovative biotechs working with a network of CROs. For example, there is no minimum library size or minimum fee. Inventories are always up-to-date and available for secure online ordering, and compounds can be stored securely in a range of formats, including vials, 96-well, 384-well and 1536-well plates, and plated in test-ready formats, including assay ready plates. And our speed of service is outstanding. We deliver to in-house labs or global CRO partners based in East Coast US and the EU in under 24 hrs, with fast access to Asian hubs.'
BioAscent has invested more than £1m in its compound management infrastructure and grown its expert team by 40 per cent over the last two years. These investments in facility and team enable BioAscent to offer its customers peace of mind that their compounds are aggregated and stored securely, their inventory is up-to-date and trackable, and compounds can be accessed and delivered quickly and easily.
