About Us

Our mission is to make drug research outsourcing more accessible and useful to the research scientist and, in so doing, dramatically improve the way new medicines are discovered.

The marketplace has been built by scientists for scientists. We know firsthand how difficult it is to work twelve hours a day in the lab trying to get experiments to work so that you can fit one piece into an ever-expanding puzzle. We’ve used our own lab experience and the combined wisdom of an outstanding group of industry and academic advisors to create a marketplace unlike any other.

How are we different?

We have re-designed the entire outsourcing experience to make it less time-consuming and more likely to deliver high quality research data. Marketplace features not found elsewhere include:

• Published prices for "standard" services
• Custom quotes from multiple providers of your choice
• Lowest published price, guaranteed!
• Price match guarantee
• Services and Products are reviewed by your peers
• Register only once to access all research providers
• Customer can keep samples "anonymous"

Any of these features would significantly improve the current outsourcing process; offered together they represent a giant leap forward in outsourcing.

How can a marketplace improve the way new medicines are discovered?

1. Remove the Routine from Research

Many highly-skilled industry scientists are spending an increasing percentage of their time running routine drug discovery services. This incurs a steep opportunity cost, as these researchers are typically also those most capable of doing innovative research that will alleviate program bottlenecks or lead to the formation of new programs. To make the situation worse, having to repetitively run the same assays over months or years is a common complaint of researchers who feel disenfranchised. The marketplace can remove the pain of routine research and allow researchers to focus on high risk, high reward opportunities that will boost industry innovation and improve morale.

2. Save Time and Money

A typical drug discovery program goes through a six year iterative cycle of chemical modification and testing. An efficient marketplace of service providers with rapid sample-to-data turnaround times should shave months off the average time to IND submission. In a competitive marketplace environment, it also seems likely that specialized service providers will pass along some cost savings to their customers.

3. Level the Scientific Playing Field

By serving as a large repository of “on-demand” drug discovery services, the marketplace levels the scientific playing field. For the first time, researchers at small drug companies will have the same access to research services as large pharmaceutical companies. Likewise, the marketplace will enable academic scientists at research universities or government institutes to more readily translate their basic research findings into clinical or commercial opportunities.

4. Improve the Odds of Clinical Success

It has become too labor-intensive and too time-consuming for any one researcher (or any one company) to carry out more than a small fraction of the drug profiling services now available. As a result, critical decisions about which drug candidates to pursue are often made based on incomplete information. Once its provider base reaches critical mass, the marketplace will enable researchers to access any drug profiling service they need, when they need it. Early access to more comprehensive information should help researchers make better decisions at every stage of drug discovery, and ultimately improve the odds of clinical success.

What is the current status of the marketplace?

This is our public beta website, launched in April 2008 with as yet undetected bugs and a limited number of services and products. We ask for your patience and assistance as we fix the problems and grow our research provider base. Over the next year, we plan to add many new services, products and features that will add value to your visit. If you are interested in actively helping us improve the site, please join our Beta Program.