Oncodesign Services and Nexus BioQuest Partner to Give Biotech Sponsors a Clearer Route to Specialist Preclinical CRO Expertise

• Oncodesign Services (Euronext Growth: ALONC), a Dijon, France-based leading preclinical CRO specializing in drug discovery across oncology, immuno-oncology, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases, has announced a partnership with Nexus BioQuest, a Bristol, UK-based preclinical immunology CRO — creating a combined pathway for biotech sponsors to access integrated in vivo oncology and in vitro immunology CRO expertise without managing separate vendor relationships.

• The collaboration links Oncodesign Services’ AAALAC-accredited, BSL1/2/3 preclinical pharmacology infrastructure — spanning radiopharmaceuticals, imaging, biodistribution, and IND-enabling services — with Nexus BioQuest’s specialized human primary cell-based assay platform for immuno-oncology, autoimmunity, neuroinflammation, and inflammation, covering therapeutic modalities including small molecules, biologics, vaccines, cell therapies, and gene therapies.

Oncodesign Services (Euronext Growth: ALONC), a leading preclinical CRO specializing in drug discovery and development across oncology, immuno-oncology, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases, has announced a strategic partnership with Nexus BioQuest, a preclinical immunology CRO based in Bristol, UK, to give biotechnology companies a more direct and integrated route to specialist preclinical expertise. The collaboration, announced in September 2026, is designed to remove the fragmentation that has historically required biotech sponsors to source and manage separate CRO relationships for in vivo oncology programs and in vitro immunology assessment.

The partnership pairs Oncodesign Services’ comprehensive preclinical infrastructure — spanning pharmacology, radiochemistry, medical imaging, biodistribution, dosimetry, bioanalysis, and IND-enabling programs across oncology and immuno-inflammation — with Nexus BioQuest’s specialized human primary cell-based immunology assay platform. Founded in 2022 and operating from Portishead, Bristol, Nexus BioQuest provides end-to-end in vitro drug discovery and non-regulatory clinical biomarker services focused on immune therapeutics, with assay capabilities covering target engagement, lead candidate identification and optimization, and predictive immunotoxicity across immuno-oncology, autoimmunity, neuroinflammation, and inflammation. Together, the combined CRO offering spans target validation through IND-enabling study completion across both in vivo and in vitro modalities.

For biotech sponsors — particularly smaller and emerging companies that lack the internal resources to identify, evaluate, and manage multiple specialist CRO vendors — the partnership is positioned as a simplification of access. Rather than independently sourcing an oncology-focused in vivo CRO and a specialist immunology in vitro CRO, sponsors can access both capability sets through an integrated relationship. The model is particularly relevant for programs in immuno-oncology, cell therapy, and next-generation biologics, where the scientific questions span both the pharmacological activity of compounds in tumor models and their behavior against human immune cell populations — questions that require complementary expertise rather than a single-discipline CRO approach.

Oncodesign Services brings over 800 client engagements of accumulated experience across oncology and inflammatory disease drug discovery, with AAALAC-accredited animal facilities and BSL1, BSL2, and BSL3 laboratory infrastructure supporting studies from early proof-of-concept through IND submission. The company’s radiopharmaceutical platform — integrating radiochemistry, imaging, biodistribution, and dosimetry — has become an increasingly important component of its service offering as targeted radiotherapy programs have grown within the oncology drug development pipeline. Nexus BioQuest contributes human-relevant multicellular assay design and execution capability, with a particular focus on assays that use primary human cells and patient material to generate predictive, clinically translatable data on drug candidate behavior in immune contexts.

“We are continually looking to ensure our customers can access the most appropriate technologies and expertise for their programs. This partnership with Nexus BioQuest extends the specialist preclinical capabilities available through Oncodesign Services, giving biotech sponsors a clearer, more integrated route to the immunology expertise their programs require alongside our established oncology and in vivo infrastructure.”

Oncodesign Services and Nexus BioQuest, the organizations stated