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High-Throughput Screening Services

Our high-throughput screening (HTS) services combine drug discovery expertise, human-centric biology and advanced data-driven approaches to help identify, validate and prioritize compounds with the highest potential for downstream success.  

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High-quality hit identification requires more than large compound libraries and automated platforms. It requires high-throughput screening services that combine technology with scientific insight and translational understanding. From target-based assays to complex phenotypic screening strategies, we help you generate actionable data that supports stronger decision-making at the earliest stages of discovery.

The term HTS is often used to describe a molecular target-based hit identification approach. At IQVIA we work with you to identify the most appropriate strategy to address your research needs - whether that be a biochemical or cellular molecular target-based approach or a phenotypic approach – we have the experience and capability to drive throughput whilst maintaining speed and quality.

Our high-throughput screening and hit identification programs are designed to deliver robust hit data, qualified as XC50 curves with both clustering and early SAR insight to help build next-steps confidence in decision-making for your research team and investors. Our comprehensive services, in combination with over a million quality-controlled, actively curated compounds, are designed to give you the highest quality chemical starting points to your critical discovery pathway.

 

 

High-Throughput Screening Platforms & Technologies

We have state-of-the-art laboratories with access to a wide range of screening technologies aligned to different hit identification approaches. Our expert teams work with you to design the most appropriate assays and cascades to meet your needs, ranging from single fixed endpoints to multivariate approaches for high-content readouts. Alongside functional assay platforms in both biochemical and cellular settings, we also have a proprietary High-throughput Affinity Selection Mass Spectrometry platform (SAMDI-ASMS) that enables rapid screening of large diversity libraries in a pooled compound setting.
In vitro Assays

From hit identification through lead optimization, our range of assays and experience in assay development across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities support the generation of decision-making data.

SAMDI High-throughput Mass Spectrometry

SAMDI-ASMS enables rapid hit identification of binders against a broad spectrum of targets for onwards progression into functional modulators, molecular glues or degraders. Further to its ASMS application, the SAMDI platform can also be employed in the detection of specific analytes as a powerful label-free approach for assay end-point detection.

Screening Libraries

Our expert CADD team can help you select from our library of over a million curated compounds (combining these with your own library if you wish). Selecting the best chemistry to place against your biology to identify high-quality hits with the greatest probability of becoming clinically relevant candidates.

ASO screening

ASO screening services employ assays to measure specific mechanisms of gene knockdown and splicing in a high-throughput format, enabling the identification and profiling of ASOs that can reduce or restore the expression of genes of interest.
DEL Screening

DNA-encoded libraries enable screening for unique binders to your biological target in a vast chemical library built for diversity and drug-like properties, identifying hits for further characterization.
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Why High-Throughput Screening Matters in Modern Drug Discovery 

Identifying active compounds is only the first step in a successful discovery program. The real challenge is identifying chemical matter that can be translated into meaningful therapeutic outcomes. Offering both molecular target-based and phenotypic screening options, our scientists work closely with you to deliver standalone screens or full programs, from hit identification through qualified and clustered starting points for ongoing drug-discovery activities. By integrating screening science with clinical and biological insight, we help you focus resources on the opportunities most likely to drive therapeutic success.

  • Generate robust, reproducible screening data, with access to over one million curated compounds
  • Ensure disease relevance with custom assay development and assay cascade design
  • Identify high-quality hits against difficult targets and disease mechanisms
  • Accelerate progression from hit identification to hit-to-lead optimization with medicinal chemistry alignment
  • Support confident decision-making with full data disclosure and project management

Selecting a Hit Throughput Screening Approach

We offer study options to suit a range of requirements, from fully tailored and flexible screening cascades to fixed-cost streamlined programs best suited to PoC studies or funding-limited projects. Our screening team actively works to monitor and optimize your program throughout execution, ensuring your research remains on track regardless of HTS program design.
Tailored HTS Cascade
Fast Track HTS

Tailored HTS Cascade

A tailored program is best suited to meet specific screening needs, supporting objective-oriented ground-up study design, or challenging targets or phenotypes. Our experienced scientists work with you to design a bespoke program tailored to your needs and budget. This can include a broad spectrum of assay development options, from transfer of an established assay, through to complex de novo assay development, and covers a vast range of screening technologies, including complex cellular assays, ranging from simple endpoints to complex multi-parametric readouts to best suit your goals.

Some of the key advantages of choosing a tailored approach include:

  • Selection from our full complement of in-house library compounds, including semi-exclusive libraries, or any external compound collection, beginning your hit identification campaign from the highest quality chemical starting point
  • Access to all available screening technologies, including complex cellular assays
  • Fully inclusive of counter-screen(s) and orthogonal(s) assays
  • Full and open data disclosure, including visibility of all structures
  • Flexible hit calling criteria and medicinal chemistry aligned as standard, providing frequent hitter analysis and hit matter with XC50s, clustering and early SAR insight
  • Enhanced hit expansion using computational methodologies

Fast Track HTS 

A fast track HTS approach maintains the same high standards and quality as a fully tailored screening cascade, but through optimization, streamlined processes and strategic standardization, we can offer a competitive fixed-cost price model, as well as expediting the execution time of an high-throughput screening program. Fast track HTS is particularly well-suited to funding-limited research or proof of concept studies in which drug developers are looking to quickly explore the tractability or druggability of a target ahead of funding applications.

Some of the key advantages of choosing fast track HTS include:

  • Begin your drug development from a high-quality chemical starting point by screening against the Lead-Like Library, one of our premier collections curated for diversity and lead-like properties
  • All assay reagents and consumables are included (excluding protein)
  • Accelerated results delivery
  • Full and open data disclosure, including visibility of all structures
  • Up to 140 compounds delivered as XC50 curves, with clustering and early SAR insight
Assay Development

Our drug discovery scientists bring deep expertise and extensive experience in HTS assay development, tailored to both target-based and phenotypic screening approaches. For target-based, we excel in developing and optimizing both biochemical and cellular HTS assays, utilizing cutting-edge technologies to ensure precise target engagement. Our team engineers novel cell lines for custom target-engagement assays and reporter-based systems, thereby enhancing specificity and sensitivity. In phenotypic HTS, we leverage a wide array of leading assay platforms to identify compounds that impact complex biological pathways. 
Orthogonal Screening Platforms

Integration of orthogonal assays into screening cascades ensures comprehensive validation of hits by assessing activity across multiple mechanistic readouts, including biochemical assays, structural biology readouts, and in vitro cell assays. By combining multiple assay types in a single cascade, we offer a comprehensive approach to hit identification that generates data to support confident decision-making in lead optimization.  
Assay Validation

We ensure the highest level of assay validation using a variety of advanced software platforms, including robust quality management systems (QMS). Our data is processed through leading tools such as IBDS Activity Base, Titian Mosaic, Dotmatics, and GeneData Screener, ensuring precision and reliability throughout the screening process. We are committed to maintaining the accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality of all data generated, providing you with secure and transparent access to experimental data and results. 
Alignment with Medicinal Chemistry

Our Medicinal Chemistry experts play a key role in your high-throughput screening program, ensuring the successful identification and advancement of high-quality chemical matter. With extensive experience in distinguishing true hits from false positives, we apply rigorous validation techniques, such as counter-screening and orthogonal assays, to establish confidence in the chemical matter identified during HTS campaigns.

Our medicinal chemists work closely with biologists to develop structure-activity relationships (SAR) around promising hits, providing a clear path to optimize potency and selectivity. In addition, we meticulously corroborate the mechanism of action and confirm target engagement through biophysical and biochemical assays, ensuring that the compounds engage the intended target in a biologically meaningful way. By focusing on chemical diversity and identifying the most suitable, high-quality chemical series, we enable smooth progression from hit identification towards hit-to-lead, laying the foundation for a robust drug discovery pipeline.
Hit Expansion

Maximize your high-throughput screening investment by following up your initial hit matter with our proprietary CADD-driven hit expansion protocol. Prioritized hits from your high-throughput screening campaign can be used to computationally select related, unscreened compounds from our extensive collection or from external vendor libraries. Follow-on screening of these compounds allows you to expand your pool of hit matter into broader chemical space and gain additional insight into the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of the compound series.

Our High-Throughput Screening Capabilities 

Our flexible HTS platforms, broad scope of connected services and capabilities, and agile one-to-one approach enable researchers to create and implement hit identification campaigns that are optimized to produce data that drive decisions, support drug discovery goals, and encourage investment.

Why Partner With Us for High-Throughput Screening Services? 

Drug-Hunter Expertise

Our scientists have extensive experience across diverse target classes, modalities and therapeutic areas, helping teams navigate complex discovery challenges.

AI-Assisted Insights

Advanced analytics and computational approaches support compound prioritization, hit expansion, mechanism analysis and decision-making.

Human-Centric Biology

We design screening approaches around disease biology, patient need and translational relevance to create data that can better inform development pathways.

Focus on Decision Quality, Not Just Data

We do more than generate data. We help teams understand what the data means and what to do next.

Flexible Engagement Models

Support for standalone screening projects, integrated discovery programs and long-term strategic partnerships.

Translational Thinking from Day One

We evaluate screening outcomes within the broader context of therapeutic strategy, helping teams identify candidates with greater confidence and a clearer path toward clinical development.
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Frequently Asked Questions About High-Throughput Screening
What is high-throughput screening services?

High-throughput screening (HTS) services enable researchers to rapidly evaluate large numbers of compounds against biological targets or disease-relevant models to identify potential therapeutic starting points for drug discovery.
When should a drug developer use high-throughput screening?

HTS is commonly used when organizations need to identify novel hit compounds, validate targets, explore disease biology or create a foundation for hit-to-lead optimization programs.
What is the difference between target-based and phenotypic screening?

Target-based screening focuses on activity against a specific molecular target, while phenotypic screening measures biological effects in cellular systems and may reveal compounds acting through novel mechanisms.
How does HTS support clinical success?

High-quality screening data helps teams make more informed discovery decisions. When combined with translational biology and clinical insights, HTS can improve prioritization of compounds that are more likely to demonstrate meaningful therapeutic benefit.
Can you develop custom assays?

Yes. We develop and optimize bespoke biochemical, cellular and phenotypic assays tailored to specific targets, disease models and scientific questions.
Do you support hit-to-lead programs after screening?

Yes. We support hit confirmation, SAR analysis, orthogonal validation, compound profiling and progression into hit-to-lead optimization activities.
What therapeutic areas do you support?

Our scientists support programs across oncology, neuroscience, immunology, inflammation, metabolic disorders, rare disease and other therapeutic areas.
How do AI-assisted insights improve high-throughput screening?

AI and advanced analytics can help identify patterns in large screening datasets, prioritize compounds, improve decision-making and uncover opportunities that may not be apparent through traditional analysis alone.