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Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease Drug Discovery Services

Developing successful therapies for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases requires more than animal models and screening assays. It requires the ability to connect disease biology, patient need, translational science, and preclinical evidence from the earliest stages of discovery.

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We help pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations accelerate cardiovascular and metabolic drug discovery through a clinic-informed approach that integrates human-centric biology, drug-hunter expertise, advanced technologies, and AI-assisted insights. Our goal is simple: identify and advance therapeutic candidates with the greatest probability of clinical success. Whether you are evaluating a novel target, validating a mechanism of action, selecting a lead candidate, or generating translational evidence for investment decisions, our integrated discovery teams provide the scientific expertise and disease-relevant models needed to support confident decision making.

Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease CRO Services
Obesity

Validate the efficacy of anti-obesity drugs in human primary cell models from healthy and diabetic donors and diet-induced in vivo models with clinically relevant readouts.
Type 1 Diabetes

Explore autoimmune mechanisms and beta cell depletion in type 1 diabetes in acute and chronic studies in translational in vivo models.

Type 2 Diabetes

Human primary cell models from healthy and diabetic donors and disease relevant assay enable investigation of glucose metabolism and uptake, alongside in vivo models of diabetes and obesity.

MASH/NASH

Investigate therapeutic efficacy in human primary hepatic stellate models of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), also known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Atherosclerosis and dyslipidemia

Explore mechanisms of atherosclerosis and dyslipidemia clinically-relevant human primary adipocytes and hepatocytes, and human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, with translational readouts including metabolomics and lipidomics, biomarkers, electrophysiology.
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Advancing Cardiometabolic Drug Discovery Through Translational Science 

The complexity of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases requires discovery strategies that go beyond traditional efficacy testing. By combining disease biology insights with translational science and clinical understanding, we help you make more informed decisions earlier in development and enable focus resources on therapeutic candidates with the greatest potential to improve outcomes for patients.

Successful programs increasingly depend upon:

  • Human-relevant disease models
  • Translational biomarkers
  • Multi-omics approaches
  • Advanced cellular systems
  • AI-assisted data interpretation
  • Clinic-informed target selection
  • Integrated pharmacology strategies

The Intersection of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases with Other Therapeutic Areas 

Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are increasingly recognized as systemic disorders that share underlying biological mechanisms with a wide range of other diseases. Chronic inflammation, immune dysregulation, metabolic dysfunction, fibrosis, and cellular stress contribute not only to atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, and MASH, but also to neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune conditions, and cancer. Understanding these shared pathways can help identify novel therapeutic targets, predictive biomarkers, and new opportunities for precision medicine.

In neuroscience, growing evidence links obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease to cognitive decline, neuroinflammation, and neurodegenerative disorders through shared mechanisms such as mitochondrial dysfunction, vascular impairment, and metabolic dysregulation. These connections highlight the importance of evaluating disease biology beyond traditional therapeutic boundaries. In immunology, chronic inflammatory processes drive disease progression across multiple cardiometabolic disorders, creating opportunities for immunometabolism research and immune-targeted therapies. Cardiometabolic diseases also have significant relevance to oncology, where altered glucose and lipid metabolism, chronic inflammation, and immune dysfunction contribute to tumor growth and therapeutic response.

As drug discovery increasingly focuses on complex, interconnected disease mechanisms, successful programs require an integrated understanding of biology across cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology. A clinic-informed discovery approach helps identify therapies with stronger translational relevance and greater potential for clinical success across multiple patient populations.

Why Partner with IQVIA Laboratories Discovery Sciences

Clinical Insight from Discovery Onward

We bring clinical thinking into the earliest stages of discovery, helping organizations evaluate targets, biomarkers, and candidate therapies through the lens of future patient outcomes.

Human-Centric Biology

Our research strategies prioritize human relevance through advanced cellular systems, patient-derived models, translational biomarkers, and disease-focused biology.

Drug-Hunter Expertise

Our teams combine decades of experience across discovery, translational science, and therapeutic development to guide critical program decisions.

AI-Assisted Discovery Insights

Advanced analytics and AI-assisted approaches help uncover patterns, prioritize opportunities, and generate actionable insights that support better decision making and resource allocation.

Focus on Probability of Clinical Success

Every study is designed with one objective in mind: advancing the candidates most likely to deliver meaningful clinical outcomes for patients.

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Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases: A Growing Global Health Challenge 

Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases represent some of the most significant healthcare challenges worldwide, contributing substantially to mortality, morbidity, healthcare expenditure, and reduced quality of life. Increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, fatty liver disease, and cardiometabolic disorders continues to drive demand for innovative therapeutic approaches. These diseases arise from complex interactions among genetics, environmental factors, chronic inflammation, metabolism, immune regulation, aging, and lifestyle influences. As a result, drug discovery programs must address highly interconnected biological pathways that influence disease initiation, progression, and clinical outcomes.

Cardiovascular diseases encompass a broad range of conditions affecting the heart and vascular system, including coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, heart failure, hypertension, vascular inflammation, and cardiometabolic disorders. At the core of many cardiovascular diseases is vascular dysfunction, a process characterized by chronic inflammation, endothelial injury, lipid accumulation, immune cell infiltration, and progressive tissue remodeling. Similarly, metabolic diseases encompass a diverse group of disorders characterized by impaired energy balance, glucose regulation, lipid metabolism, and insulin signaling.

Patients with obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, or fatty liver disease frequently develop cardiovascular complications, while cardiovascular disease itself can contribute to metabolic impairment. This biological overlap has created strong interest in therapies capable of addressing multiple cardiometabolic pathways simultaneously. As a result, modern drug discovery programs increasingly adopt integrated approaches that evaluate cardiovascular, metabolic, inflammatory, and fibrotic endpoints within the same translational framework.

Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases

A Growing Global Health Challenge
Atherosclerosis and Vascular Inflammation

Atherosclerosis and Vascular Inflammation

Atherosclerosis is one of the primary causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. The disease develops when cholesterol-rich lipoproteins accumulate within arterial walls, triggering inflammatory responses that lead to plaque formation. As plaques progress, immune cells, inflammatory mediators, and fibrotic tissue contribute to vascular narrowing and instability. Advanced lesions may rupture, resulting in thrombosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, or other severe cardiovascular events.
Heart Failure and Cardiac Remodeling

Heart Failure and Cardiac Remodeling

Heart failure is a progressive condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood effectively enough to meet the body's needs. Drug discovery efforts increasingly focus on identifying therapies capable of preserving cardiac function, reducing fibrosis, improving metabolic efficiency, and preventing disease progression.
Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction

Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction

Obesity is a chronic, multifactorial disease associated with systemic inflammation, altered energy homeostasis, hormonal dysregulation, insulin resistance, and increased cardiovascular risk. Adipose tissue is now recognized as an active endocrine organ that produces cytokines, growth factors, and signaling molecules capable of influencing inflammatory pathways, insulin sensitivity, liver function and energy expenditure. As obesity prevalence continues to rise globally, the need for innovative therapeutics targeting appetite regulation, energy balance, and metabolic pathways remains a major focus of drug discovery.
Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes develops through a combination of insulin resistance and progressive pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction. The disease is associated with multiple pathological mechanisms, including impaired glucose metabolism and insulin signaling, chronic low-grade inflammation, lipid dysregulation and increased cardiovascular risk. Because diabetes affects numerous organs and biological systems, successful drug discovery requires integrated models capable of evaluating efficacy, mechanism of action, and long-term metabolic outcomes.
Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH)

Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH)

MASH is an advanced form of fatty liver disease characterized by hepatic steatosis, inflammation, cellular injury, and progressive fibrosis. The complexity of MASH pathology requires translational models capable of evaluating multiple disease endpoints, including inflammation, fibrosis, lipid metabolism, and liver function.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Drug Discovery 
What is a cardiovascular drug discovery CRO?

A cardiovascular drug discovery CRO provides outsourced scientific expertise, disease models, pharmacology studies, biomarker strategies, and translational research services that help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies discover and develop cardiovascular therapies.
What metabolic disease models are commonly used in drug discovery?

Common metabolic disease models include obesity models, type 1 diabetes models, type 2 diabetes models, MASH models, fatty liver disease models, dyslipidemia models, and atherosclerosis models. These models help evaluate therapeutic efficacy and translational potential.
Why are translational biomarkers important?

Translational biomarkers create a bridge between preclinical findings and clinical outcomes, helping researchers demonstrate target engagement, mechanism of action, patient relevance, and therapeutic response.
How can clinic-informed drug discovery improve success rates?

Clinic-informed discovery incorporates patient insights, disease biology, translational science, and future clinical requirements earlier in development. This approach helps prioritize the most promising candidates and reduce downstream development risk.
What is the benefit of human-relevant preclinical models?

Human-relevant models can provide earlier insight into therapeutic activity, improve biological understanding, and increase confidence that preclinical findings will translate into clinical settings.
What therapeutic modalities can be evaluated?

Programs can be designed to support diverse modalities, including small molecules, antibodies, multispecific antibodies, peptides, proteins, oligonucleotide therapeutics, mRNA approaches, and cell therapies.