New Tools for High Throughput in Drug Discovery

Drug discovery scientists conducting early ADME testing will soon have two new tools in their toolkit designed to increase their efficiency and throughput, thanks to Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX and their collaborators.

Both a new mass spectrometry system and a new software application have recently been introduced that allow complementary approaches to high throughput quantitation for early discovery ADME screening applications. These dual approaches provide flexibility for ADME laboratories to choose an approach that matches their workflow, equipment availability, and specific needs.

The first, the FlashQuant™ Workstation, is a hybrid of two previously un-married technologies – MALDI and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. A workhorse in pharmaceutical small molecule quantitation, triple quadrupole technology delivers the sensitivity needed for accurate drug and metabolite detection with the accuracy needed for discovery ADME. MALDI brings speed to the equation.

The FlashQuant system delivers at least a 25-fold increase in throughput compared to LC-based mass spectrometry systems by decoupling the liquid chromatography from the MS analysis. The unprecedented speed translates to a one to three second analysis time per sample. Discovery scientists have hailed this as a disruptive technology because it will cause them to rethink their workflows and the kinds of tests that are now possible in their laboratories.

Instead of waiting an entire day for set results and subsequent analysis and decision-making, scientists will be able to move forward in a matter of minutes or hours. The cumulative affect could shave time and cost from the drug discovery process and result in significantly improved productivity.

Another benefit of the FlashQuant workstation’s speed is the new possibility of 'quick reads', allowing verification of an assay or method, a preview into how an experiment is progressing, or a screen to determine whether more comprehensive study is necessary or warranted. This new capability afforded ADME labs may assist the pharmaceutical industry goal to make key decisions earlier in the process.

According to Laura Lauman, president for Applied Biosystems’ proteomics and small molecules division, “The FlashQuant system is a breakthrough platform that will improve early drug discovery by increasing the speed and the number of compounds that can be profiled. This could potentially result in more efficiency and greater ROI in the drug development process, by enabling important development decisions to be made earlier and with more reliability.”

Software Counts, Too
Not only will the new platform be speedier, but so will existing LC/MS systems that use the new DiscoveryQuant™ software application. DiscoveryQuant software aims to improve the ability of pharmaceutical companies to identify viable drug candidates by allowing them to generate more ADME information than was previously possible via automated tools, shared information, and automated assay setup.

The new application automates the process in which compound samples are analyzed on mass spectrometry systems in a laboratory, eliminating manual, time-consuming tasks required by older methods. Combined with the in-depth analysis of the mass spectrometer, the new application manages the ADME assays as well as reviews and interprets the ADME data from the tests for deeper molecular analysis.

This process improvement is expected to provide more accurate and faster information about the properties that help predict the potential success rate that a newly developed drug could have in the future. The DiscoveryQuant software application is expected to enable scientists to generate more ADME information. This better-informed decision-making is expected to greatly improve the drug development process.

The software is designed to work with the full range of Applied Biosystems triple quadrupole and hybrid linear ion trap mass spectrometers.