Sygnature Discovery and Cyprotex Discovery, two UK-based providers of drug discovery, absorption/distribution/metabolism/elimination (ADME), toxicity and pharmacokinetic services to the pharmaceutical industry, have extended their existing strategic alliance to offer a fully integrated discovery chemistry/ADME-Tox/DMPK (drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic)  platform.

Both companies have been through a number of changes since they launched their “highly successful” collaborative sales and marketing initiative two years ago, Sygnature and Cyprotex noted.

These have included significant expansion on both sides, with Cyprotex acquiring US-based Apredica, as well as the associated Cellular Systems Biology and High Content Toxicology assets of Cellumen, and Sygnature both growing organically and recently announcing a strategic alliance with Saretius, a preclinical experimental services company with ‘gold standard’ models for pain, central nervous system disorders, inflammatory conditions and metabolic diseases.

“Our experience with Sygnature over the past year has led us both to conclude that we can successfully deliver integrated drug discovery services to our customers, and we wish to strengthen this offering in the future,” commented Dr Anthony Baxter, chief executive officer (CEO) at Cyprotex.

According to Sygnature’s CEO, Dr Simon Hirst, working with Cyprotex has been “a key component of our portfolio of preclinical services as we have grown and expanded to offer our clients integrated drug discovery services”.

The relationship chimes with Sygnature’s strong belief that “modern drug discovery requires the marriage of medicinal chemistry, biology, in vitro ADME and disease-specific models”, he added.  

As Hirst pointed out, Sygnature and Cyprotex have collaborated on a number of drug discovery programmes for clients over the past four years.  “We have a dedicated project manager at Cyprotex focused on our clients’ projects, and scientists from both organisations have established a very close working relationship,” he commented.