Compound Management
Streamline your research process with our all-in-one Compound Management Service that optimizes every step of compound sourcing, handling, and logistics. From identifying the right suppliers to managing shipments to ensuring seamless integration into your workflows, let us take care of it all. Tailoring the approach to compound selection, acquisition, and management, we draw upon various reliable vendors and millions of commercially available compounds. Whether it be sourcing strategies, logistics, or the technical know-how for compound handling, we provide the best solutions for research projects that are cost-effective, timely, and of good quality.
Case Study
Chemspace's customer is an agricultural biotech company.
The customer conduct glasshouse screening and was looking for a solution to purchase, aggregate, plate and ship a custom screening libraries alongside with their in-house compound collection for next pooling.
The compound libraries needed to be plated, dissolved, and formatted into assay-ready plates, then shipped both internally and to external partners to carry out HTS campaigns.
Chemspace utilized the Optimal Quote Internal Tool to identify and source compounds in the required format. Whenever possible, samples were procured in pre-weighed solid form (3 µmol per tube) to optimize both budget and time efficiency.
Suppliers weighed the compounds into consumables specified by Chemspace, after which they were shipped from 9 different suppliers to our partner for aggregation and reformatting. Chemspace overseeing all logistics and customs clearance.
The continuous (real-time) compound management that was applied ensured high flexibility and precision in the preparation and distribution of compounds for assays. Here's a breakdown of the process:
- Compounds' Delivery The customer's in-house collection was delivered as dry powders, providing flexibility in terms of storage and future use.
- On-Demand Repackaging Compounds were repackaged into multiple batches as required, allowing for tailored preparation. This method optimizes inventory use and reduces waste, ensuring that only the compounds needed for specific assays are processed.
- Flexible Plating for Assays Plating were performed on demand, ensuring that compounds are dispensed into plates optimized for specific assays. This flexibility allows for efficient preparation of a wide variety of assay-ready plates as per the customer's needs.
- Instant Dissolution Dissolution was carried out instantly in the required solvents and concentrations, which significantly speeds up the process and provides real-time compound preparation for any assay requirement.
- Customer-Specific Maps & Pre-Purchased Standards By utilizing customer-specific plating maps, compounds were formatted exactly as required for the customer's specific assay needs. Additionally, using pre-purchased standards allows for the customization of compound libraries, making sure that the compounds are ready for screening and tailored to the customer’s scientific protocols.
- Data Registration Register customer details and compound information, including batch numbers, assay requirements, and QC data, into the customer’s account in CDD Vault like databases for seamless tracking and management.
What is compound management?
Compound management is a critical operational function in drug discovery and development that goes far beyond simple storage. It encompasses the complete lifecycle of chemical samples - from acquisition and registration through storage, quality control, reformatting, and dissolving.
Effective compound management systems integrate logistics (inventory tracking, plate management, sample retrieval), quality control (analytical verification, stability monitoring), and data management (compound registration, analytical records, usage history). Together, these functions prevent common pitfalls such as sample degradation, cross-contamination, plate mix-ups, and loss of traceability.
Our End-to-End Compound Management Workflow
Chemspace’s Compound Management System is a part of Chemspace Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. It was designed to streamline every stage of compound handling, from sourcing to delivery.
The system ensures regulatory compliance and traceability through compound passports, HTS coding, transport class assignment, and customizable SDS documentation. It supports flexible reformatting options, including reweighing, relabeling, dissolution, automated multi-format plating, pooling, cherry-picking, and preparation of reaction-ready reagents, all performed with a broad range of labware to match customer demands.
Quality is guaranteed through rigorous incoming QC, complemented by MSDS, CoA, and advanced analytical data (LC/MS, HRMS, NMR). Compounds are registered in secure inventory management systems with full confidentiality, while dedicated storage facilities in the USA and EU offer multiple temperature conditions (ambient, –20 °C, –40 °C) to preserve compound integrity.
To ensure global access, Chemspace provides robust logistics and shipping support, including dry ice or ice pack shipments, customs clearance, consolidated or direct deliveries, and worldwide courier services. This integrated platform allows researchers to focus on discovery while Chemspace manages the operational, regulatory, and logistical complexity of compound handling.
Technologies and Tools in Our Compound Management System
Managing large compound collections requires more than storage - it demands sophisticated tracking, quality control, and seamless integration with discovery workflows.
Our compound management system combines automated inventory tracking with rigorous quality assurance protocols. Each compound is registered with complete analytical data, storage conditions are monitored continuously, and sample retrieval is optimized for speed and accuracy. We maintain full traceability from initial plating through dispensing and resupply.
The system integrates directly with our screening services and chemical catalog, enabling smooth transitions from virtual hits to physical samples to biological testing. Whether you're building a proprietary library, managing hit follow-up compounds, or coordinating multi-project sample logistics, our infrastructure handles the complexity so your team can focus on the science.
Flexible formatting options support various assay platforms, and our quality control checkpoints ensure sample integrity throughout the workflow. The result: reliable compound delivery that keeps your discovery timeline on track.
Benefits of Our Compound Management Services
We are the largest online source for compounds. Chemspace guarantee access to billions of purchasable compounds from reliable suppliers worldwide like Enamine, KeyOrganics, MedChemExpress, and other. Our catalog includes over 910,000 in-stock building blocks and 7.9M in-stock screening compounds, as well as numerous compound sets and pre-plated libraries.
End-to-end service. Chemspace offers end-to-end service, not just storage. We cover the whole workflow – from identifying the right suppliers to managing shipments to ensuring integration into your workflows, including reformatting, storage, quality control, SDS Tool and others.
Flexible formatting & delivery. Chemspace offers flexible formatting options that adapt to customer’s specific research needs. You can cherry-pick individual compounds, receive pre-plated libraries ready for HTS campaign, or request custom package tailored to your assay design and automation system.
Strict adherence to quality control. Chemspace ensures strict quality control and complete documentation at every step. All compounds undergo purity checks and analytical data packages, like LC/MS, NMR, etc. In addition, you receive full documentation, including Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and certificate of analysis (CoA).