Medivir Reshapes Drug Discovery, Chooses Waters Synapt High Definition MS (HDMS) System to Aid Decision-Making

Swedish-based biotechnology firm Medivir AB has chosen the Waters^® Synapt™ HDMS System to hasten its drug discovery efforts in the area of protease inhibitor research and eventually help patients who suffer with herpes, hepatitis C, HIV, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and high blood pressure. Installed in June, the Synapt High Definition Mass Spectrometry™ (MS) System is yielding significant information that is assisting with the decision-making process and helping Medivir reach its drug discovery milestones.

"Medivir is constantly reviewing opportunities to improve research output both in terms of quantity and quality. This investment in the Waters Synapt HDMS instrument has been seen as a very important vehicle to increase research output and to provide high quality support for the discovery disciplines," said Medivir Vice President of Discovery Research, Bertil Samuellson, Ph.D.

In terms of helping Medivir advance its research, the Synapt HDMS™ System carries great potential.

"The sensitivity of this instrument is significantly greater than the average quadrupole time-of-flight instrument and gives us more complete metabolic profiles," says Kurt Benkestock, Senior Research Scientist, Analytical Chemistry Department, who supports many of Medivir's research efforts. "At one time, we relied on outside resources to give us the information we needed. Now with the Synapt HDMS System, we can acquire the data we need in house and move candidates into advanced development phases faster."

After carefully evaluating all its options, Medivir chose Waters Synapt HDMS System coupled to a Waters ACQUITY^® UltraPerformance LC^® (UPLC^®) System over all the conventional high-resolution, two-dimensional LC-MS technologies offered by other mass spectrometry suppliers. "The reason we went with Waters Synapt System is that the instrument outperformed the others based on 22 performance criteria," says Benkestock.

Other intangible aspects of the selection process were important as well. "Waters is good at listening to its customers, understanding their requirements, and adding features and making improvements that help us meet our scientific requirements," added Benkestock.

Benkestock’s plans for the Synapt HDMS System are far-ranging including structure elucidation of metabolites and impurities, ligand screening during early drug discovery, protein and peptide work, protein identification and studying post-translation modifications, and target characterization.

Medivir gave its employees a better look at the Synapt HDMS System during an inauguration event on Thursday, October 25 at corporate headquarters.

Waters introduced the Synapt HDMS System at the American Society of Mass Spectrometry annual meeting in Seattle in June of 2006. It is the first commercially-available mass spectrometer with the ability to analyze ions by their size, shape and charge in addition to mass.

Other customers include Cambridge University, Oxford University, Utrecht University, University of Leeds, Max Planck Institute, and the University of Warwick.