Taros Chemicals and Welab Barcelona Announce Partnership to Provide Integrated Drug Discovery Services

Taros Chemicals, a leading German contract research (CRO) player in small molecules, and Welab Barcelona, Spain’s largest drug discovery center and previously ESTEVE’s central drug discovery and development unit, today announced a strategic partnership to provide their customers with integrated drug discovery and development, from the generation of ideas for new molecules to preclinical development.

Through this unique partnership, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will now benefit from centralized access to Taros’ expertise in synthetic and medicinal chemistry covering hit identification, hit to lead and lead optimization as well as drug design and molecular modeling services while benefiting from Welab’s exceptional R&D platform providing in vitro and in vivo pharmacology services, DMPK and toxicology. The partnership will also offer a large combined chemical library of more than 115,000 potentially bioactive compounds and address specific modalities such as peptide and oligonucleotide chemistry. Its operational base will include state-of-the-art chemistry and biology laboratory infrastructure of 5,000 m² as well as an animal laboratory of 500 m².

Dr. Dimitrios Tzalis, CEO of Taros Chemicals, comments: “Many of our customers have repeatedly asked our experts for additional integrated biology services in addition to our expertise in medicinal chemistry. The establishment of this partnership with our Spanish colleagues will now satisfy this demand and provide our customers with an end-to-end portfolio throughout the execution of their preclinical development programs.”

Welab’s CSO, Dr. Jose Miguel Vela, adds: “Our goal is to build a bridge between the scientific idea and the patient, stimulating the creation of the next generation of tomorrow’s medicines. This strategic partnership, with a leading organization such as Taros Chemicals, will help us address the major challenges facing biomedical research and propose new therapies for needs not yet met.”