Cyprotex, the UK-based provider of ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Elimination) and toxicity services that earlier this month acquired US-based counterpart Apredica for £2.68 million, has launched its new in vitro toxicology service under the Cyprotox brand.
The service is backed up by 90 sq m of extra laboratory space at Cyprotex’s UK facility in Macclesfield, housing the latest technology in multi-parametric automated fluorescent imaging and cellular analysis, the company noted. As such, the Macclesfield site will have the same in vitro toxicology capabilities as those of Apredica in the US.
“The combination of in vitro ADME, in vitro toxicology, and Cyprotex’s proprietary predictive modelling and proprietary CellCiphrTM technology acquired [with Apredica] from Cellumen gives Cyprotex’s customers access to the most extensive and advanced portfolio of early ADME Tox services on the market today,” said Dr Anthony Baxter, the UK company’s chief executive officer.
The Macclesfield facility includes a Thermo Scientific Cellomics ArrayScan VTI HCS Reader, which complements the four Cellomics HCS (High Content Screening) instruments at Apredica. The ArrayScan uses HCS technology to determine multi-parametric indicators of toxicity.
A recent breakthrough for early toxicology assessment, HCS has been extensively validated and is now being adopted throughout the pharmaceutical industry, Cyprotex pointed out.
The facility offers a number of other services for assessing toxicity, including reactive metabolite detection, mitochondrial toxicity, toxicological gene regulation, phospholipidosis and haemolysis.
“Drug toxicity, and drug-induced liver injury in particular, is a major reason for failures in clinical trials and for the withdrawal of previously approved drugs from the market,” Dr Baxter commented.
“Toxicity is the most costly problem in drug development today,” he added. “Identifying potential liabilities at an early stage in drug discovery decreases the likelihood of late-stage failures, and promises to produce the same magnitude of drug development efficiency improvements that preclinical ADME has provided.”
