Discovery Park company announces new partnership

Discovery Park’s ambition to become a neuroscience centre of excellence has taken a major step forward after a partnership was announced between one of its tenants and another leading life science company.

Scitegrity, which was founded in 2011 by former Pfizer scientists and data managers, employs five people at Discovery Park, the science and business park based in Sandwich, Kent. In the partnership Scitegrity will perform sophisticated computer modelling of drugs in development to assess if they have potential drug abuse liabilities.

Commenting on the partnership, Mayer Schreiber, Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Park, said: “This partnership highlights the global significance of the world-leading work being done here in Kent. Success in life sciences is increasingly based upon collaboration, rather than competition and many of our tenants are doing the same in order to bring forward important new medical advancements.”

Scitegrity which specialises in making controlled drug and chemical regulations searchable by chemical structure has announced a partnership with DevelRx, which supports the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in the development of new drugs to treat psychiatric, neurological and metabolic disorders.

Mayer Schreiber added: “Partnerships like this one between Scitegrity and DevelRx are key to establishing stronger networks and takes Discovery Park closer to the development of the Manufacturing Village concept, that will enable us to support companies all the way from idea to scale-up by creating supply chain, infrastructure and funding.”

Based at BioCity in Nottingham, DevelRx has supported the successful development and registration of 12 new drugs for the treatment of opiate withdrawal, ADHD, binge-eating disorder, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, anaesthesia, opiate-induced constipation, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

The partnership will use the algorithms, data sets and expertise developed by Scitegrity over seven years as part of its Controlled Substances Squared service, a market-leading system that encodes controlled drug legislation from around the world. Customers of Scitegrity include five of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies, as well as chemical suppliers, CROs, regulators and pharma companies. This enables them to accurately and automatically identify if any chemical is considered controlled or regulated in more than 28 countries.

DevelRx, founded in 2020, is already an internationally recognised consultancy business providing expert support on central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery and development to all sectors of the worldwide pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Key services include drug abuse evaluations of all centrally-acting drugs.

Notes to editors:

Discovery Park has grown to be a thriving part of the South East’s life science community over the past seven years as a multi-business science campus. The site offers high quality laboratory, office and manufacturing facilities, the space and support to expand, access to local finance, and a strong local scientific talent pool. It was named recently one of six prestigious UK Life Sciences Opportunity Zones by the UK Government, and is developing its vision for a Manufacturing Village.

The growing tenant community includes Pfizer, Algaecytes, Canterbury Christ Church University, Concept Life Sciences, eXroid, Firza, Genea Biomedx, LGC, Viatris, Psyros Diagnostics, Salvensis, VisusNano and Wren Healthcare. 

Discovery Park is home to 160+ companies employing 3,500 employees in total. With easy connections to London, Europe and the world Discovery Park is a great place to build and grow your biotech, medtech or pharma business.