Home2025-11-05T00:51:59+00:00

The Future of
Drug Discovery is Here.

Axcelead accelerates the discovery and development of high-value therapeutic candidates for the preclinical stage leading to human clinical trials. We leverage our proprietary end-to-end platform to enable our biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners to deliver benefits to patients around the world.

Who We Are

Axcelead is your trusted drug discovery and development partner.

We were formed in 2017 as a Takeda spin-out with a singular vision in mind – to support healthcare innovation as the world’s most trusted drug discovery solutions provider. We bring our vision to life by harnessing our expertise and proven track record of success in small molecule, cell therapy and immune-oncology drug discovery to our partners to advance and improve their drug pipelines.

What We Do

Oncology, immunology, neuroscience drug discovery and so much more.

At Axcelead, we are focused on accelerating the discovery and development of high-value drug classes through our end-to-end platform, enabling our biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners to deliver benefit to patients around the world.

Omics
Our advanced omics technologies provide a comprehensive view of biological systems, linking genes as blueprints, proteins as the building blocks of cells, and metabolites as indicators of phenotypic changes and cellular morphology.
Learn More › Bioinformatics
Our bioinformatics solutions help accelerate drug discovery by turning complex omics and genomics data into clear actionable insights.
Learn More › Targeted Protein Degradation
Axcelead has comprehensive capabilities in TPD drug discovery at the preclinical stages and a proven track record.
Learn More › RNA-Targeted
Small Molecules
Axcelead has comprehensive capabilities in integrated RNA-targeted small molecule drug discovery at the preclinical stages.
Learn More › Target Identification / Validation
Target Identification would have a significant impact in drug discovery research. Axcelead offers the platform to support the identification of novel drug target using human data driven transcriptomics and proteomics. Target validation of identified candidates is also performed in Axcelead using human samples and a variety of animal disease models.
Learn More › Hit Identification / Characterization
Axcelead will design a robust HTS strategy, starting from assay development through hit characterization, based on 700+ HTS experiences. Using carefully curated library sets from 1.5 million compounds inherited from a pharmaceutical company, we have achieved a success hit identification rate of 90+%.
Learn More › Lead Generation / Optimization
Axcelead has all must-have functions for efficient lead generation and optimization in one place, covering medicinal and analytical chemistries as well as in vitro and in vivo biology including DMPK and safety evaluation. Furthermore, Axcelead also uses proprietary in-silico systems with AI and high throughput synthesis technology to guide rational drug design and compound delivery.
Learn More › Candidate Selection
Candidate Selection is vital in drug discovery as in which, the optimized compounds are evaluated whether they are feasible for IND application filing and clinical studies. The candidate compound is selected and proposed based on the results of human effective dose prediction and safety assessment. Axcelead offers you one-stop and high-quality candidate selection by our accumulated experience.
Learn More › IND Enabling
Our proprietary process is designed to accelerate the development project time of your drug from candidate selection to IND filing, reduce R&D costs and achieve an IND in under 12 months. Smart-IND is a one-stop shop with Axcelead
Learn More › Advancing Oncology Research
We harness our wealth of expertise in target identification/validations, in vitro cell based assays, in vivo studies and translational research to achieve compounds with optimal profiles to perform well in the preclinical, clinical and real-world settings.
Learn More › Advancing Immunology Research
Our proprietary process focusses on obtaining the right immune and inflammatory reactions in cells from multiple species in our preclinical models, obtaining efficacy in our preclinical models and creating a novel MOA at our facility utilizing human tissue and blood samples.
Learn More › Advancing Cardiovascular / Metabolic Disease Research
Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are complicated diseases involving various organs, and drug discovery requires deep expertise. At Axcelead, our team has abundant experience in drug discovery for heart failure, kidney diseases, obesity, MASH, etc.
Learn More › Advancing Neuroscience Research
When you partner with us, we will validate the scientific hypothesis of hitting a particular target based on the change of gene and protein expression using iPSC, patient-derived CSF, plasma and brain cells. Further, we will evaluate the potential of your compound using various measures of brain function and efficacy with behavioral tests specific to the development of neuroscience drugs.
Learn More › Axcelead Booster
A-Booster is a data-driven drug discovery solution designed to shorten the time to candidate generation. Clients can jump-start from existing hits or leads of our 1,000 pharma-originated legacy projects.
Learn More › High Throughput Screening
Our integrated High Throughput Screening (HTS) platform, including a pharma-origin library of 1.5 million compounds, assay development capabilities, and a track record of over 700 projects, helps you rapidly identify your hit compounds.
Learn More › Chemistry
Axcelead leverages our expertise and technologies of rational drug design and synthetic chemistry to create the medicines of the future
Learn More › In Vitro/In Vivo Pharmacology
Axcelead provides integrated in vitro and in vivo pharmacology services designed to maximize disease relevance and translational predictability throughout drug discovery and early development.
Learn More › Oligonucleotide
Safety and delivery are the main challenges associated with discovering and developing complex oligonucleotides therapies. Axcelead offers a comprehensive platform that excels in repeating both in vivo and in vitro evaluations in the short term and proposing optimal solutions to help our partners overcome these challenges.
Learn More › Peptide
A Comprehensive One-Stop Solution for All Your Peptide Drug Discovery Challenges!

Axcelead has intelligent platform technologies to create peptide therapeutics with optimized profiles suitable for clinical development.
Learn More › Small Molecules
Small molecule drugs have been the dominant form in pharmaceuticals to date, and even as modalities diversify in the future, they are expected to continue to comprise the majority of newly approved drugs.
Learn More › Genetically Modified Animal
Genetically modified animal models are useful tools in translational research, particularly for evaluating drug efficacy and elucidating disease mechanisms.
Learn More › arrow_forward arrow_back

Client Outcomes

We are your trusted partner.

At Axcelead, we have an aggressive mission to become the most trusted drug development solutions provider to leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Our wealth of expertise and knowledge stems from our robust client base, with over 100 facilities including pharmaceutical companies, venture companies and academia utilizing its services.

Our current partners in the US consist of cutting-edge companies developing new and proven drug candidates and modalities for oncology, immunology and neuroscience indications.

95%
Hit Identification
Success Rate

 

88%
Repeat Rate
 

84%
LG/LO
Achievement Rate

*LG/LO: Lead generation and lead optimization

Axcelead consistently demonstrates higher screening hit rates and project success rates compared to industry standards. These results are driven by expert researchers with extensive pharmaceutical R&D experience who leverage cutting-edge platforms to support our clients’ drug discovery. We also place great importance on communication, earning client trust and a high rate of repeat business by providing tailored solutions to their diverse challenges.

News

Our latest news and press releases.

We are ready to partner with you.

Go to Top