Collaborative Drug Discovery

Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD), Inc. offers a web-based informatics platform designed to streamline the management of research data for the life sciences sector. Founded in 2004 by Dr. Barry Bunin as a spin-out from Eli Lilly, where he was an entrepreneur-in-residence, the company was established to tackle the inefficiencies of managing complex chemical and biological data. Dr. Bunin's background includes medicinal synthetic chemistry at companies like Axys Pharmaceuticals and Genentech, as well as co-authoring key texts on chemoinformatics, providing him with a deep understanding of the challenges in drug discovery.

The company's core offering is the CDD Vault, a hosted database that allows research organizations to manage, analyze, and securely share experimental data. The platform serves a diverse client base, including biotechnology companies, academic laboratories, contract research organizations (CROs), and research hospitals. Its business model is based on subscriptions to the CDD Vault, which provides an affordable solution compared to the high costs of customized, in-house database systems. This approach addresses the critical need for collaborative tools in modern drug discovery, where research often involves multiple teams across different locations.

The CDD Vault consolidates chemical structures, biological assay results, and other study data into a single, secure environment, replacing the cumbersome use of spreadsheets. Its modular design includes functionalities for Activity & Registration, an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), data Visualization, and Inventory management. Significant milestones include receiving a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008 to aid tuberculosis research and the NIH adopting the platform for its Neuroscience Blueprint Network in 2012. In 2021, CDD expanded its product line with PharmaKB, a knowledge base providing structured information on drugs, diseases, and companies for competitive intelligence and business development. More recently, in 2024, the company rolled out new modules for AI, Automation, and Inventory, continuing to enhance its platform's capabilities.

Keywords: drug discovery informatics, research data management, chemical database, biological database, CDD Vault, Barry Bunin, chemoinformatics, SAR analysis, electronic lab notebook, ELN, life sciences software, biotech data management, CRO data platform, academic research tools, secure data sharing, PharmaKB, pharmaceutical intelligence, chemical registration, assay data management, collaborative research platform