BioTrove, Inc. today announced an exclusive alliance with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) to provide customers with a complete solution for sample preparation and data analysis of high-throughput in vitro ADME assays.

BD CYP450 Inhibition Screening Service with RapidFire Technology is a first-of-its-kind service that combines BD’s expertise in the field of ADME, sales force and customer support team, with technology leader BioTrove’s high-throughput mass spectrometry technology. The new service enables customers to use the same assay in discovery and development, eliminating the need to validate and compare multiple assay systems. Initial applications will focus on Cytochrome P450 inhibition assays – used to assess potential drug-drug interaction liabilities – performed with mass spectrometric detection using drug probes described in the draft U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance.

Under the new agreement, BD and BioTrove will provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a complete solution to assess the ADME properties of large numbers of test compounds in a cost-effective manner. BD will offer BioTrove’s RapidFire mass spectrometry-based screening and analysis system as a new service for novel compound investigation. The high-quality data analysis incorporates FDA-suggested probes analyzed individually and full IC(50) curves, rather than single concentration inhibition data.

“We’re committed to improving the process of drug discovery for biopharma clients of all sizes – including those who may not have the infrastructure or resources to generate their own samples for analysis,” said Can “Jon” Ozbal, Vice President and General Manager of BioTrove’s RapidFire Business Unit. “Now, by combining BD’s world-class expertise in ADME applications with BioTrove’s unique mass-spectrometry technology, we’ve created a new solution that allows customers to simply supply the investigational drug, and we’ll provide the high quality analysis and rapid seven-business-day turnaround.”

Using high-throughput mass spectrometry to screen test compounds across a wide range of discovery and in vitro ADME applications, the RapidFire system enables researchers to gain a more complete understanding of the biochemical properties of potential lead compounds, including potential liabilities in drug-drug interactions. Uncovering these potential complications during the earliest stages of discovery permits researchers to select only the most promising candidates for further development, thus saving time and money by focusing their resources on the compounds most likely to succeed.

“BioTrove continues to remove bottlenecks from the drug discovery process, helping customers to eliminate unsuccessful compounds – with LC-MS quality data, in a fraction of the time – before investing unnecessary resources in their investigation,” said Albert A. Luderer, Ph.D., President and CEO, BioTrove. “Partnering with BD is our latest exciting step toward advancing the science behind meeting public health needs.”

For more information, please visit BioTrove at Booth #43 at the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics’ (ISSX) 15th North American Regional Meeting, October 12-16 in San Diego, California. Information is also available at www.biotrove.com.