Leading UK Drug Discovery CROs Unite as Sygnature Discovery

Over the past few years Sygnature Discovery has acquired two of the UK’s most respected CROs: RenaSci and XenoGesis.

As of this month, the teams and services provided by these two companies will be fully integrated under the Sygnature Discovery brand, creating one of the most comprehensive integrated drug discovery platforms on the market today.

Going forward, the RenaSci and XenoGesis brands will no longer be in active use, however their expertise, their reputation for scientific excellence, and their resounding success stories in the life sciences industry will live on under the Sygnature brand.

Founded in 2001, RenaSci has provided an integrated blend of in vivo pharmacology consultancy and experimental services, helping clients from all sectors of the pharmaceutical and biotech industry to maximise their research productivity and streamline drug development. This acquisition in 2018 was a major development in our mission to engage in the complete drug discovery journey, from target validation all the way through to pre-clinical solutions.

XenoGesis was founded in 2011, and went on to become the UK’s largest independent laboratory-based CRO specialising in pre-clinical DMPK, quantitative bioanalysis, in vitro pharmacology, and expert interpretation. This acquisition in 2020 effectively doubled the size of our DMPK department, serving to meet an increasing demand for its services while also boosting our reach into the pre-clinical space with new expertise, skills and capabilities.

XenoGesis and RenaSci were both based alongside Sygnature here at BioCity, Nottingham, which also served our core ethos of having co-located, multi-disciplinary teams of expert research scientists, working and problem-solving together, facilitating seamless drug discovery and creating innovative solutions for our partners.

“We’ve always been driven by a desire, not just to grow, but to do drug discovery better,” said Dr Simon Hirst, CEO at Sygnature. “Every step we fill in on the drug discovery journey better informs how we work on the others. Because we are truly integrated, with our teams co-located and working alongside each other, we are not just adding a new service, we are improving every service. We are broadening the pool of minds and skillsets that can be brought to bear on any challenge. That makes this a very exciting time, and we are thrilled to have XenoGesis and RenaSci become part of the Sygnature family.”

While more than 300 of Sygnature’s research scientists are housed at our headquarters in Nottingham, Sygnature is now recruiting heavily for our second integrated drug discovery site at Alderley Park, Cheshire, where we have recently begun moving into new state-of-the-art labs designed for all of our core disciplines.