Drug discovery firm acquires clinical research organisation

Drug discovery company Sygnature Discovery has acquired XenoGesis, the UK’s biggest lab-based clinical research firm. The deal will help Sygnature Discovery to meet increasing demand, while boosting its pre-clinical work. Both companies are based in Nottingham’s Biocity complex.

Xenogesis, which was founded in 2011, is a specialist in pre-clinical drug metabolism and pharmokinetics, as well as quantitative bioanalysis and in vitro pharmacology. Its research focuses on how drugs move through the body and calculating likely human dosages.

Sygnature has been bolstering its drug discovery offering in recent years, with the acquisitions of clinical research organisations RenaSci and Alderley Oncology. The acquisition of Xenogesis will almost double the scale of its drug safety evaluation work, while boosting its discovery and development capabilities and complementing the firm’s current service-offering.

Dr Simon Hirst, the founder and Chief Executive of Sygnature Discovery, said: “Our ultimate mission at Sygnature is to help create life-changing drugs for patients that have made it through the drug discovery and development process, and we recognise the central role that DMPK plays in that journey.”

Dr Hirst added that “Sygnature is not growing for the sake of growing. We believe that truly integrated drug discovery is the best possible way forward in bringing novel efficacious drug candidates to man; that having teams working together across every discipline involved in a research project, sharing ideas and resolving challenges, will produce the sparks of innovation and high-quality science needed to enable success.

“We have always had tremendous respect for the work that XenoGesis does, and have a strong history of collaboration with them over the years.”

XeneGesis CEO and founder Dr Richard Weaver commented: “Sygnature and XenoGesis have always had a superb working relationship and been closely aligned in our culture and aspirations.

“From the start, both companies have focused on world-class science, insightful data interpretation, and creating genuine partnerships with our customers. Therefore, this step feels like a very natural one, and we are very excited about what we can accomplish together in helping accelerate our customers’ projects towards the clinic.”


In its latest available accounts, for the year ended March 31 2019, Sygnature Discovery’s turnover increased to £26.1 million, up 33.9 per cent from £19.5 million the year prior. The company registered post-tax profits of £5.3 million, up from £2.6 million in 2018.

Xenogesis’ latest accounts, also for the year ended March 31 2019, show the company holding fixed assets of £867,755, current assets of £1.3 million, with net assets valued at £1.5 million.


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