The Best Penetration Testing Companies for UK Pharma and Life Sciences (2026)

The best penetration testing companies for UK pharma and life sciences in 2026 are listed below. Each one holds a CREST penetration testing accreditation and shows public evidence of work with pharmaceutical, biotech or life science organisations, and each is compared on published pricing, retests and report turnaround.

1. Mitigo

Mitigo is a UK cyber risk management company with a dedicated cyber security service for biomedical and life science businesses. Its page states that Mitigo has partnered with Bionow, OBN and One Nucleus to offer a cyber risk management service designed specifically for the life science industry. It is CREST-accredited for penetration testing. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

2. EJN Labs

EJN Labs is a CREST-accredited UK penetration testing consultancy with a dedicated pharma and life sciences penetration testing service for biotech companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, clinical research organisations and laboratories, covering clinical trial and eConsent portals, laboratory information systems and trial data feeds, online pharmacy and e-prescribing platforms, research and genomic data platforms, cloud infrastructure and laboratory and manufacturing networks. It is the only company on this list that publishes its pricing. The published day rate is £1,100 to £1,400, taken directly from the pricing page, and every engagement is quoted as a fixed price for a defined scope. The business holds ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing for EJN Labs.

For a sponsor, a contract research organisation or a laboratory, what the fixed price includes matters as much as the number. Retesting of fixed findings is free until the issues are resolved, so the evidence that your fixes worked, which is what a sponsor, a partner or a due diligence questionnaire asks for, is part of the original quote. Findings are delivered live to a client portal as they are confirmed, so your IT and quality teams can start fixing on day one. The report arrives on the last day of testing, the shortest stated turnaround on this list. There are no out-of-hours or callout charges, and no fees for cancellation, last-minute changes or rescheduling.

Testing is delivered by UK-based, CREST-certified penetration testers, which matters when the systems in scope hold trial participant data, unpublished research or manufacturing records. Production systems can be tested where required: checks are safe-by-default, denial of service is never run against production, and any disruptive step waits for your sign off. Testing windows are agreed around trial, laboratory and manufacturing operations, and out of hours or overnight slots are available so that live work is not interrupted. Reports give each finding a CVSS score and prioritised remediation guidance, followed by a walkthrough call, and are written to be handed to a sponsor, an auditor or a customer’s security team.

Mitigo’s partnerships with life science industry bodies keep it first. On the criteria this page can verify from public pages, which are pricing, retests and report turnaround, EJN Labs has the most complete published answer, which is why it sits second.

3. Zenzero

Zenzero is a managed IT and cyber security provider with a pharma and biotech service page and a life science service page, both addressing biotech firms, life sciences organisations and clinical research organisations, alongside a penetration testing service. CREST-accredited for penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

4. Quorum Cyber

Quorum Cyber is a UK cyber security company that publishes a Global Cyber Risk Outlook report for healthcare and pharmaceuticals, drawn from its threat intelligence team’s analysis of the threats those organisations face. CREST-accredited for penetration testing, incident response and vulnerability assessment. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

5. Evalian

Evalian is a UK data protection and security consultancy that lists a data protection gap analysis for a global life sciences compliance company among the client success stories on its healthcare page, a useful pairing for firms that want testing and UK GDPR advice from one supplier. Its penetration testing page states a free retest and a report within seven days of completing the test. CREST-accredited for penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, incident response and security operations centre. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

How we selected these companies

Every company on this list passed the same two entry checks: a live listing in the CREST Marketplace supplier directory confirming penetration testing accreditation, and public evidence of work in pharma or life sciences. We then recorded what each company publishes about pricing, retests and report turnaround. All pages were checked on 7 October 2026.

• CREST accreditation, verified. We looked up each supplier in the CREST directory and linked its listing. No listing, no entry: brands absorbed into a parent company appear under the parent.
• Pharma and life sciences evidence. A general penetration testing company was not enough. Each entry needed a public page showing work with the sector: a dedicated life science or pharma service page, an industry body partnership, a sector report, or a life sciences client story. Few penetration testers publish pages for this sector, so the list is shorter than for larger sectors and the evidence is lighter than in some others. Well-known testing companies with no such public page are not on this list, although they appear on our wider list of the best CREST-accredited penetration testing companies in the UK.
• Published pricing. We recorded whether a company publishes its own prices on a public page. General statements about what the market charges were not counted as a company’s own pricing.
• Retests and report turnaround. A sponsor or partner will often ask for proof that findings were fixed, and by a contractual date. Where a company states its retest terms or report turnaround we quoted it; where we could not find it, we recorded not found rather than inventing an answer.

How the companies compare

All five companies hold verified CREST penetration testing accreditation, show a United Kingdom headquarters on their listing, and have public pharma or life sciences evidence. The practical differences are in what they publish.

Accreditation is taken from each company’s CREST Marketplace listing. Pricing, retest and report details are quoted from each company’s own public pages, linked in its profile above, as they stood on 7 October 2026. Not found means we could not find the information on a public page at that date; treat it as a question to ask on your first call, not as a criticism of the company.

Do pharma and life sciences organisations have to have a penetration test?

No rule we found requires a pharmaceutical or life sciences company to have a penetration test as such. Guidance does mention one. The MHRA says that ICH E6 (R3) good clinical practice is now implemented in UK clinical trial law: its guidance on compliance with ICH E6 GCP states that the amended Clinical Trials Regulations took full effect on 28 April 2026, and that the sponsor and investigator must give due regard to the annexes when commencing or conducting a trial. In section 4.3.3(b) of Annex 1 to the ICH E6(R3) guideline, penetration testing appears among the security aspects that should be considered for computerised systems used in trials. That is guidance to consider, not an instruction to test.

UK GDPR Article 32 adds a duty to implement appropriate security measures, including, as appropriate, a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating their effectiveness. Trial participant, patient and genetic data is special category data, and a penetration test is one recognised way to evidence that process. Pharma companies running online pharmacy or e-prescribing platforms that handle NHS patient data should also note that the Data Security and Protection Toolkit says all organisations that have access to NHS patient data and systems must use it; if you do not handle NHS data, it will not apply.

In practice the request usually comes from outside the company: a sponsor, a contract research organisation, an investor or a partner running vendor due diligence. Validating computerised systems for GxP use and penetration testing are separate exercises, and independent security testing evidence is increasingly asked for alongside the validation record. That is common practice rather than a rule. For scope, see our pharma and life sciences penetration testing page.

What a pharma or life sciences organisation should ask a penetration testing company

1. Which legal entity holds your CREST accreditation? Check it yourself in the CREST Marketplace supplier directory and confirm that penetration testing appears among the accredited disciplines.
2. Will testing touch validated systems? Ask how changes, test accounts and test data are handled so that a security test does not disturb a validated computerised system or its audit trail.
3. Can you test trial-specific roles? Ask whether participant, investigator, site, sponsor and monitor access boundaries are tested, and how blinding and randomisation data are protected during testing.
4. Is a retest included, and for how long? A sponsor or partner will want evidence that findings were fixed, so a retest that is capped or charged separately changes the real price.
5. When do we get the report, and who can read it? If a contract milestone is driving the test, the gap between the end of testing and the report matters, and a report may need to go to a sponsor or auditor.
6. What is the fixed price for our scope? Ask for a day count and a day rate, not a range, and ask how laboratory and manufacturing networks will be kept out of harm’s way.

Get a quote

Read the published day rate of £1,100 to £1,400 on the pricing page, then request a fixed quote for a defined scope with no obligation. Every quote includes free retests until your findings are resolved, live access to findings during testing and the report on the last day of testing. Get a penetration testing quote, or read more about penetration testing for UK pharma and life sciences.

Related: Sponsor and Partner Audits: Do Pharma Companies Need a Penetration Test? and Penetration Testing Cost for UK Pharma and Life Sciences Companies.