ITI launches

ITI Life Sciences (Dundee, Scotland), alongside CXR Biosciences (Dundee) and Artemis Pharmaceuticals (Cologne, Germany), has launched a new £5.5m r&d programme to develop new screening and safety models to more accurately predict the effects of drug compounds and their breakdown products in the human body.

Accurate determination of these compound properties plays a crucial role in determining whether or not to progress a drug candidate into human clinical trials. Such predictive studies could substantially increase the efficiency of drug discovery and development by allowing the identification of compounds with the correct pharmacokinetic and toxicity profile at a very early stage, thereby avoiding costly development of problematic compounds. The global market for metabolism and toxicity testing is estimated to be worth $3bn.

In this second ITI Life Sciences programme, CXR Biosciences - which specialises in applying molecular and genetic techniques to accelerate drug development and 'rescue' molecules with unexplained toxicological observations - and Artemis Pharmaceuticals will provide complementary research expertise and jointly commercialise the programme outputs. Atremis will use 'humanised mice' from its ArteMice platform to provide an optimal model for early in vivo testing on a human target.

'Knowing where a drug is distributed in the body, its effects on various tissues and how its breakdown products are removed is crucial to the development of safe and effective drugs,' said Dr John Chiplin, ceo, ITI Life Sciences.

'Around 40% of drug failures in clinical trials in humans are a result of unexpected metabolism of the drug. Pharmaceutical companies recognise the importance of early and predictive testing to identify the most promising compounds much earlier in the development process, and there is a clear unmet need for technologies addressing this issue.'

Scotland already has a strong presence in the preclinical development arena, with a number of companies active in this field. The ITI programme will aim to build on this existing base of business and technology to promote Scotland as a leading player in the global preclinical services marketplace. The group's aim is to bridge the increasing funding gap between publicly funded early stage research and privately backed commercial development.