New Software Development Initiative Targets Drug Discovery

Applied Biosystems and its joint venture partner MDS Sciex have created a software development initiative to help pharmaceutical companies determine drug candidate viability early in the development pipeline through analysis of the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) properties of compounds.

According to both Companies, the software developments will improve the speed and accuracy of ADME testing of drug candidates, helping to lower the costly drug failure rate during pre-clinical stages of the development cycle.

The Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX approach creates an intuitive method for managing the screening of compounds by increased automation of the analytical process, particularly quantitative mass spectrometry tailored for drug discovery laboratories.

The analytical quantitative capabilities of the mass spectrometry instruments and software provided by Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX have helped to make mass spectrometry-based systems the preferred method for pharmaceutical research.

As part of the initiative, Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX is collaborating with Sound Analytics and Pfizer, Inc. to design these software applications.

Sound Analytics; a scientific applications company that has been working on automation features with Pfizer for six years; will provide expertise in early ADME software development while Pfizer will provide the guidance to shape the requirements for the new ADME software applications.