Strasbourg, France and San Francisco, CA, September 9, 2026.. Novalix and OpenBench are proud to announce a strategic partnership that re-imagines and accelerates drug discovery by delivering experimentally validated chemical hit series through a fee-for-success model.
OpenBench virtually screens trillions of compounds, identifying and synthesizing the most promising hits. These candidates are passed on to Novalix where world-class in vitro screening and characterization surface actionable, meaningful start-of-chemistry for the most challenging targets. OpenBench absorbs all early-stage financial and scientific risk, applying a success-based fee only when validated hits are delivered.
The result is a discovery workflow that can deliver validated chemical hit series on novel targets in as little as six months. By shifting early-stage risk entirely away from the client, companies avoid speculative discovery spending and can direct resources towards advancing hits through Novalix's integrated, full-service drug development pipeline. Novalix’s demonstrated expertise in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology gives companies a clear path to refine validated hits into clinic-ready assets.
"Combining OpenBench's AI-powered discovery platform with Novalix's experimental expertise creates a seamless path from computational hit identification to validated starting points. Together, we're helping clients accelerate early drug discovery while reducing the scientific and operational challenges of validating new compounds." said Denis Zeyer, CEO, Novalix.
"OpenBench is committed to making high-quality hit discovery more accessible through our fee-for-success discovery collaborations. Working with Novalix allows us to connect our AI discovery platform with strong experimental capabilities, enabling clients to advance challenging programs with greater confidence," said James Yoder, co-founder and CEO of OpenBench.
This partnership gives life science companies a direct path to high-quality, developable chemical starting points without the upfront cost and uncertainty that typically define early drug discovery efforts. Companies pay only when the science delivers.
About Novalix
Novalix is a premier contract research organization, dedicated to improving the critical early stages of drug discovery by combining exceptional scientific talent and exclusive technology with a comprehensive portfolio of world-class chemistry, biophysics and pharmacology capabilities. We work collaboratively with our clients to meet the most complex scientific challenges, and our innovative partnerships with leading instrument makers and academic institutions help us continually expand the possibilities of human health. To learn more, visit https://www.novalix.com.
About OpenBench
OpenBench is pioneering fee-for-success early discovery collaborations to fuel the pipelines of the world’s most innovative therapeutics companies. OpenBench’s structure-based artificial intelligence platform has designed and confirmed the most potent known chemical matter for a dozen target binding sites, discovering agonists, competitive and allosteric inhibitors, and potent non-functional binders for use in proximity-inducing modalities. Our success-driven collaboration model begets scientific accountability, R&D time and cost efficiency, and paves the way to better patient outcomes. To learn more, visit https://www.openbench.com.
Business enquiries:
Novalix - Felix von Haniel fhaniel@novalix.com
Media contacts:
Novalix - Edwina Frawley-Gangahar edwina@efgmediarelations.com
OpenBench - Michael Baksh mike.baksh@openbench.com