Advances in HTS technologies over the past decade have been impressive. While raw HTS remains a minor component (< 3%, by time) of the typical Discovery project life cycle; it is a key "stage-gate", core function in Discovery Research. If we postulate the view that overarching drug screening efforts in Pharma represent a manufacturing process wherein the deliverables are bona fide development candidates, rate-limited steps can be proactively identified and mitigated. Compound handling operations are core to all of Research, and have been a persistently troublesome bottleneck. This talk will present advances in compound storage and automated sample retrieval systems (ASRS), as well as modern QC/QA for lead compounds qualification.