EVERYTHING
According to Pulse2, Pelago Bioscience has completed the acquisition of RG Discovery, a move designed to unify biology and chemistry within a single drug discovery framework. The transaction allows Pelago to expand its service offerings beyond target engagement into areas such as medicinal chemistry, peptide chemistry, and custom synthesis.
Integrated Design-Make-Test-Analyze Platform
The merger creates an end-to-end platform that supports the full design-make-test-analyze (DMTA) cycle for pharmaceutical clients. By combining Pelago Bioscience’s proprietary Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA®)-based platform with RG Discovery’s chemical infrastructure, the company can provide a continuous feedback loop. Data generated from biology studies regarding how compounds engage with targets in living cells can now be fed directly into compound design and synthesis processes.
The primary goal of this integration is to eliminate the friction caused by vendor handoffs, which often slow down drug discovery programs. By offering a single scientific partner, Pelago Bioscience intends to help customers move more efficiently from initial hit identification through to lead optimization. Key capabilities included in the new integrated offering are:
Strategic Expansion in Sweden
RG Discovery, founded in 2011 by former AstraZeneca scientists, operates out of Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden. The company employs approximately 40 scientists who specialize in solving complex medicinal chemistry challenges. Pelago Bioscience, headquartered in Stockholm, will now leverage this established infrastructure to strengthen its position as a specialized drug discovery partner.
"Drug discovery increasingly requires seamless integration between chemistry and biology. By bringing RG Discovery into Pelago Bioscience, we can offer customers a single scientific partner capable of designing and synthesizing compounds, evaluating target engagement in living cells, and rapidly feeding those insights back into the next design cycle," said Michael Dabrowski, Chief Executive Officer of Pelago Bioscience. Johan Evenäs, CEO and Co-founder of RG Discovery, added that joining forces allows for the combination of world-class chemistry with world-class target engagement science to expand their impact on difficult scientific problems. This unified approach aims to provide pharmaceutical companies with greater confidence and faster progress in their development pipelines.