Lab21 offers new drug discovery services

A new company offering a different approach to antiviral drug discovery services and clinical trials support has been launched in the UK.

Lab21 is a diagnostics business, but rather than develop its own assays it brings together tests, assays and monitoring systems from specialist partners to offer a range of services, including lead identification and optimisation, resistance profiling, clinical candidate selection and selectivity evaluation in pre-clinical situations. Once a drug is in the clinic, Lab21 offers pharmacogenetic testing and trial stratification, FDA requirements for registration, efficacy studies and resistance monitoring.

Key to its strategy is the concept of personalised healthcare, which involves using pharmacogenetic profiling to assess the risk of certain diseases or conditions developing, and examining an individual's genetic make-up, lifestyle choices and environmental factors in order to assess disease progression, and consequently ensure that only optimum treatment options are offered.

'Our business is directed into three key areas,' ceo Nick Kerton told Manufacturing Chemist. 'It serves hospitals with specific assays, providing them with information to help determine the most effective treatment, which can consequently reduce the time taken to get to the decision point and thereby cut costs. It also works with emerging drug discovery companies to improve screening efficiency.'

Lab21's pharmacogenetic approach can also help determine the natural responders to a particular treatment as opposed to the non-responders, thereby ensuring that the patients who have been selected for the clinical trials process have been screened to optimise the performance of the trial.

'We believe that Lab21 has already made significant progress towards the goal of personalised healthcare. Our customers benefit from a unique portfolio of tests that allow the characterisation of a virus, the assessment of prospective drug candidates, and the understanding of potential resistance. In addition, we can genotype a trials population, assess their pharmacogenetics, or monitor patients undergoing therapy.'