This evolution\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0happen by accident,\u00a0rather\u00a0through a combination of\u00a0necessity and\u00a0desire. Over the past decade and a half, the landscape has changed immensely; molecules have become\u00a0increasingly\u00a0complex, timelines have compressed, and the expectation for\u00a0data-rich, insight-led decision-making across the development cycle has\u00a0risen. In response, CatSci was built into what it is today: deliberately, investment by investment, capability by capability, in direct response to what\u00a0our\u00a0biotech and pharma\u00a0customers\u00a0needed next.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our CEO and co-founder, Dr Ross Burn<\/a>, said: “15 years since co-founding CatSci, I\u2019m proudest of two things: the c.120 brilliant people who make up our team, and the many projects we\u2019ve delivered for patients in need. While the business has evolved significantly over that time, those two things have remained constant. People and purpose have always been at the heart of CatSci, guiding how we\u2019ve grown and the decisions we\u2019ve made along the way.” CatSci began trading in May 2011 as an expert provider of catalysis R&D. The early years established the scientific rigour and customer-centric approach that still define how the business operates today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By January 2015, it was clear that the problems\u00a0customers\u00a0needed to solve extended well beyond catalysis, and that\u00a0addressing\u00a0isolated challenges was no longer enough. Route design decisions\u00a0dictate\u00a0process development. Analytical insight shapes scalability. Early chemistry choices can\u00a0determine\u00a0whether a programme\u00a0flies or stalls at a later stage\u00a0at a later stage. Recognising this,\u00a0by the start of 2016\u00a0CatSci\u00a0had\u00a0broadened its focus to become an end-to-end pharmaceutical process R&D partner<\/strong>, not by abandoning its roots, but by building on them. This marked a deliberate shift: from solving\u00a0single\u00a0problems to supporting entire programmes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The years that followed brought significant recognition\u00a0as growth accelerated. We were thrilled to see our dedication and\u00a0delivery\u00a0recognised by\u00a0for the first time by\u00a0the industry:\u00a0CPhI\u00a0Worldwide Award for Excellence in Pharma in 2018, Cardiff Business Awards International Business of the Year in 2019, and Wales STEM Scale-up of the Year in 2020<\/strong>, to name a few.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n After navigating\u00a0the pandemic,\u00a0at the back end of which we were able to open our\u00a0dedicated\u00a0analytical laboratory in Dagenham, a\u00a0momentous milestone for us came in April 2022, when CatSci was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade<\/strong>, the most prestigious business\u00a0accolade\u00a0awarded\u00a0in the UK.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0huge honour, we were immensely proud of this fantastic achievement. For a company founded just over a decade earlier\u00a0in a\u00a0Cardiff start-up incubator, it was a profound marker of how far the business had come. Working with four of the top five global pharmaceutical companies,\u00a0operating\u00a0across 13 countries, and with a\u00a0staff\u00a0where around 80% hold a PhD, the award reflected not just commercial success but scientific credibility on an international stage. As the team put it at the time, it was about\u00a0“putting Wales on the pharmaceutical industry’s international map<\/strong>.”<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two months later, in June 2022,\u00a0Keensight\u00a0Capital, one of Europe’s leading growth buyout investors, made a significant investment in CatSci<\/strong>. It was a vote of confidence in both the business model and the ambition behind it.\u00a0Keensight’s\u00a0track record in the\u00a0healthcare and pharma\u00a0services\u00a0space, combined with their international network, provided the platform to accelerate what the founding team had already set in motion: GMP capabilities, oligonucleotide services, site expansion, and ultimately, a\u00a0broader and more\u00a0enhanced\u00a0scientific offering.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n These weren’t just milestones, though. They were the achievements that made the next phase of CatSci’s evolution possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the investment in infrastructure was transforming what CatSci could offer.\u00a0After\u00a0the\u00a0analytical facility at Dagenham\u00a0came a new material science laboratory\u00a0later\u00a0in 2021\u00a0and an oligonucleotides\u00a0laboratory\u00a0shortly after, expanding our\u00a0Cardiff\u00a0footprint.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Each addition was driven by the same fundamental question: what does solving the next generation of drug development challenges actually require?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last 15 years have seen significant advances in the types of\u00a0assets\u00a0entering development\u00a0as potential new therapeutics, as well as the technologies used to support them. Whilst we\u00a0retained\u00a0our\u00a0expertise\u00a0in small molecules, we understood that\u00a0our customers\u2019\u00a0needs were evolving towards\u00a0all manner of\u00a0synthetic medicines:\u00a0highly\u00a0complex\u00a0small molecules,\u00a0bifunctional\u00a0chimeras, oligonucleotides, peptides, ADCs,\u00a0and other conjugates<\/strong>.\u00a0The\u00a0common theme between them all being the relentless search for\u00a0treatments to target the most challenging diseases.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n These demands\u00a0informed CatSci\u2019s continued evolution.\u00a0We\u00a0opened a\u00a0state-of-the-art\u00a0\u00a0SafeBridge-certified\u00a0HPAPI laboratory<\/strong> in\u00a0January 2023.\u00a0GMP capabilities were\u00a0established\u00a0at Dagenham<\/strong> in late 2023.\u00a0We\u00a0acquired\u00a0Reach Separations\u00a0<\/strong>in Nottingham\u00a0in 2024 to extend the business’s\u00a0separation science and\u00a0chromatographic\u00a0purification\u00a0expertise\u00a0further\u00a0still\u00a0\u2013 emblematic of the broader direction of travel\u00a0to better support the\u00a0evolving\u00a0demands\u00a0of\u00a0customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The newest additions to\u00a0CatSci’s\u00a0capabilities reflect where\u00a0new\u00a0drug development,\u00a0juxtaposing\u00a0potency and targeting,\u00a0is heading. We\u00a0established\u00a0a peptide R&D\u00a0group\u00a0in January 2025, followed by\u00a0the\u00a0opening\u00a0of\u00a0a dedicated peptide laboratory\u00a0in June 2025<\/strong>\u00a0and,\u00a0shortly after,\u00a0a\u00a0bioscience laboratory<\/strong>,\u00a0both\u00a0at our\u00a0Nottingham\u00a0site. This continued our\u00a0meaningful expansion beyond traditional small molecule chemistry\u00a0and\u00a0marked\u00a0CatSci’s first step into biological sciences.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are not incremental additions; they represent a deliberate move to empower our ability to tackle the increasingly complex, multimodal programmes that are defining modern drug development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Taken in the round,\u00a0our\u00a0trajectory\u00a0has been driven not by the addition of services for their own sake, but by the\u00a0explicit\u00a0need to support more\u00a0involved\u00a0and interconnected development pathways<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Growth at this pace can\u00a0always\u00a0dilute what made a business valuable in the first place\u00a0and risk\u00a0future\u00a0success. CatSci’s approach to avoid that\u00a0has been\u00a0by investing in\u00a0its\u00a0people and infrastructure<\/strong>, building\u00a0useful\u00a0partnerships, and by ensuring that the scientific rigour that defined the early catalysis work\u00a0remains\u00a0the standard across every team and every discipline.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our ESG commitments reflect the same long-term thinking.\u00a0\u00a0Recent\u00a0EcoVadis\u00a0Silver certification,\u00a0MyGreenLab\u00a0Green and Gold ratings, ISO 27001 accreditation,<\/strong>\u00a0to name but a few,\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0our dedication to create a lasting, positive impact on people, the planet, and progress.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n International reach has grown, too. From our founding HQ in Cardiff, we now have\u00a014\u00a0labs across\u00a0three sites<\/strong>, and\u00a0CatSci\u00a0has become a recognised name across the global pharmaceutical industry<\/strong> \u2014 most recently hosting its first\u00a0scientific conference and networking\u00a0event in Boston in February 2026,\u00a0following on from three such events in the UK in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the teams working on complex drug development programmes today, the significance of this evolution is practical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A partner that can take a\u00a0small\u00a0molecule, oligo,\u00a0or peptide\u00a0from early-stage route design through process R&D, analytical development\u00a0and\u00a0GMP manufacture, without losing the scientific, technical, operational and regulatory\u00a0context that accumulates along the way, is a genuinely different kind of resource.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0built-in CMC.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s also what fifteen years of deliberate investment has created. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The story of CatSci so far is not simply one of growth, from five scientists to a team\u00a0over\u00a0120\u00a0(and counting)<\/strong>.\u00a0It is one of evolution\u00a0by intention, shaped by the changing needs of\u00a0pharmaceutical innovators\u00a0and a commitment to building the capabilities required to meet them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n From catalysis to integrated drug development, our purpose has\u00a0remained\u00a0the same since 2011: to get medicines into the hands of patients in need, by solving\u00a0the scientific\u00a0and technical\u00a0CMC\u00a0problems that stand in the way<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The science has changed. The modalities have expanded.\u00a0The regulatory environment has\u00a0evolved. The competitive landscape has tightened.\u00a0The ambition has grown. But that commitment is exactly what it was when we founded\u00a015\u00a0years ago<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifteen years ago, CatSci was founded with a single, clear focus: to solve complex catalysis challenges in chemical process development. At the time, this was a defined and\u00a0distinctive\u00a0niche. Catalysis sits at the heart of efficient, scalable synthesis, and the ability to solve complex catalytic problems with speed and rigour was, and\u00a0remains, genuinely valuable. But what started as deep specialist\u00a0expertise\u00a0in […]","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":13000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"by_capability":[],"by_audience":[],"class_list":["post-12992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12992"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13001,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12992\/revisions\/13001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/13000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12992"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/author?post=12992"},{"taxonomy":"by_capability","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/by_capability?post=12992"},{"taxonomy":"by_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catsci.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/by_audience?post=12992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Our CCO and co-founder, Dr Simon Tyler<\/a>, said: \u201cWhen I started my career in pharma over 25 years ago, a medicine that I am taking now to help combat the cardiovascular disease that led to my father’s early passing was still being worked in the process development lab where I did my first experiments. \u00a0Healthcare challenges affect us all,\u00a0directly\u00a0and indirectly, and this fuels my unwavering focus on getting better medicines into the hands of patients. \u00a0CatSci has inevitably been a huge part of my life since we first nurtured our thoughts during\u00a02010,\u00a0and I have had the privilege of working alongside some fantastically talented and committed colleagues. \u00a0I am immensely proud of what they have achieved and the meaningful impact that CatSci has had in delivering hundreds of drug development projects. \u00a0It’s\u00a0the only reason that CatSci exists.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/catsci.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/catsci-milestones-blog.pptx.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n2011-2015: Laying the Foundation<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2016-2022: Recognition, Expansion, and Evolution <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2023 \u2013 2026: Building for New Modalities <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Scaling Without Losing Scientific Depth <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What This Means for Customers<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n