UK-based drug discovery, development and manufacturing organisation, Concept Life Sciences (CLS), backed by mid-market private equity investment firm Limerston Capital, has completed the acquisition of Charnwood Discovery.

The deal underlines CLS’ ambitious growth strategy and strengthens its position as a market leader in pharmaceutical and life science sectors.

Based in Nottingham, Charnwood Discovery is one of the UK’s top providers of drug discovery research with an impressive global client base in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. Its offering spans standalone customised drug discovery services and solutions, through to fully integrated projects where its leading Chemistry, Biology and ADME/DMPK scientists work closely with customers to enhance the experience and success of complex drug discovery.

The addition of Charnwood to CLS will further strengthen its ability to deliver cutting edge science and help customers accelerate drug candidates to clinic with high success rate, across different modalities.

CLS is an established contract research organisation (CRO) and it will benefit from the experience and track record in delivering integrated drug discovery programs brought by Charnwood’s scientific talent.

In turn, Charnwood customers will gain from the breadth and depth of capabilities at CLS, including its experience in translational biology to deliver turn-key solutions in small molecule, biologics and other advanced therapeutic modalities. Customers will also have access to CLS’ GMP manufacturing capability that is pivotal for bridging the gap between early phase to later phase clinical trial manufacturing needs.

The deal comes at a time of uncertainty in the drug discovery CRO sector as the US Biosecure Act, passed by the House of Representatives in September 2024, could prohibit US customers from working with select Chinese CROs.

The integration of Charnwood talent and capabilities into CLS creates a compelling offering from a UK-based CRO with scale to serve global customers looking to pull away from Chinese providers and identify alternative providers with superior scientific capabilities. CROs located in countries with more regulatory certainties, and which have better IP protection will become more attractive in the marketplace.

Dr Ben Cliff, CEO of Concept Life Services, said: “Charnwood Discovery brings an outstanding team of scientific talent and an extensive global client base. Like CLS, they are deeply committed to excellence and innovation in accelerating drug discovery. By combining our strengths, we’re able to fully integrate our capabilities and significantly speed up the progression of promising drug candidates from development through clinical trials to commercial production—at up to twice the pace of the industry average.”

Lee Patterson, for Charnwood Discovery, said: “CLS has an excellent reputation as an innovative and dynamic player in our field, and we see enormous potential to develop our portfolio of high-value, rapidly growing services, while advancing the development of new and complex therapies in biotech and pharmaceutical industries as well as emerging modalities such as cell and gene therapies (CGT) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). Our customers will see the immediate benefit of new investment, as well as access to state-of-the-art facilities and collaboration with leading scientists and professionals at CLS.”

Jane Grewar, Operating Partner at Limerston Capital and Chairman of CLS, added: “We’re thrilled to welcome the Charnwood Discovery team to CLS. CLS has long been dedicated to driving innovation in support of our clients across biotech, pharmaceutical, small molecules, and emerging modalities such as cell and gene therapies (CGT) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). With the addition of Charnwood’s expertise in delivering fully integrated programs, we’re able to enhance our comprehensive offering and deliver truly cohesive solutions. This integration strengthens our ability to help clients identify and advance the best candidates to clinic faster, further reducing our industry-leading timelines and supporting their mission to deliver impactful therapies to patients.”

About Limerston Capital

Founded in 2015 by James Paget, João Rosa and Martim Avillez, London based Limerston Capital pursues control investments in UK mid-market companies and seeks to create value through the firm’s buy-and-build and operationally focused model.  The firm targets businesses with EBITDA of between £5 million and £15 million that have a solid value proposition, but have potential for operational improvements, have mispriced underlying returns on capital and provide opportunities for strategic repositioning via consolidation. 

About Concept Life Sciences

Founded in 1989, Concept Life Sciences is an established drug discovery and development contract research organisation based in the UK, with clients in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space ranging from blue chip to virtual biotech. The breadth and depth of its expertise is unparalleled in Europe and ranges from drug discovery and early development through to API manufacturing at multi kilogram scale under good manufacturing practice (GMP), which is delivered as a single service or as part of wider discovery and development programmes.

Boasting a team of >200 accomplished scientists and professionals who operate from state-of-the-art Chemistry, Biology and GMP manufacturing facilities, in the last 10 years the CLS team has helped customers accelerate 4 drugs to the market, 21 candidates to clinic, and 30 to pre-clinical stage, reducing typical timeline from Concept to Clinic by half versus industry average.

About Charnwood Discovery

Founded in 1998 and based in Nottingham, Charnwood Discovery provides drug discovery research from standalone customised solutions through to fully integrated programs that enhance the experience and success of complex drug discovery.

It has an impressive global client base in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors and leverages its deep chemistry expertise to provide synthesis, medicinal chemistry and scale-up research for new drugs.