AsisChem Invited To participate In "ADMET for Drug Discovery" workshops

On Wednesday, January 6 and again, on Thursday, January 21, AsisChem will participate in Apredica's workshop titled "ADMET for Drug Discovery". The breakfast workshops will help academic scientists, preparing drug-discovery focused grant applications, to realize the full potential of early screening techniques that can be applied to developmental compounds.

The power of in-vitro ADMET screening, coupled with a medicinal chemistry program, is to advance the compounds most likely to succeed. The testing paradigm helps weed out compounds that wouldn't have made it for reasons of toxicity or bioavailability, or physicochemical properties, before they are advanced to the more costly stages of preclinical- and clinical- development.

Scientists from Apredica and AsisChem will be available to interact with attendees at the meetings and discuss how these assays and strategies will strengthen grant proposals and build the groundwork for project success.

Apredica Director of Business Development, Carol Gebert, added that "The objective is to develop the most promising drug candidate, overall. Not just the strongest binding compound."

The workshops will be offered January 6 and January 21 from 8 to 12 at Apredica, 313 Pleasant Street, Watertown, MA. Click here to register.

Happy Holidays From AsisChem!

The year is drawing to a close, and it is a great time to pause and reflect on the events of the last twelve tumultuous months. Most people would describe 2009 as difficult, stressful and filled with uncertainty. There has been no shortage of layoffs, big pharma mergers, biotech bankruptcies and consolidation in the pharma services industry. The shake-ups have touched virtually every professional in the pharma and biotech industries. Here at AsisChem, we also faced many challenges as we grew over 100% year over year.

The good news is that this year is over, and 2010 promises to be quite a bit different, with many companies having completed their restructuring and receiving funding for new drug discovery and development projects. We are working with a number of companies now with a very positive outlook for the next 12 months, and we are excited to be part of several discovery efforts to develop therapeutics for oncology, anti-viral, CNS and several other indications.

We would like to extend our best wishes to our current, past and future customers, our partners, and all others reading this blog.

Happy Holidays!!!

November 2009 Newsletter

Greetings!

We have very exciting news this month. AsisChem now has a blog! This newsletter is now posted for access at anytime (and you can look back at old issues with fond memories). Also, we will have articles, commentary and other extremely important and interesting information. So enjoy this newsletter and sign-up to receive notifications of blog updates.
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Organic Reactions Song (click for video)


This Is Your Brain On Fatty Acids
Saturated fats have a deservedly bad reputation, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a sticky lipid occurring naturally at high levels in the brain may help us memorize grandma's recipe for cinnamon buns, as well as recall how, decades ago, she served them up steaming from the oven. Read More

Slimming Gene Regulates Body Fat
Scientists at the University of Bonn have discovered a previously unknown fruit fly gene that controls the metabolism of fat. Larvae in which this gene is defective lose their entire fat reserves. Therefore the researchers called the gene 'schlank' (German for 'slim'). Mammals carry a group of genes that are structurally very similar to 'schlank'. They possibly take on a similar function in the energy metabolism. The scientists therefore have hopes in new medicines with which obesity could be fought. Read More

Nano-Scale Drug Delivery For Chemotherapy
Going smaller could bring better results, especially when it comes to cancer-fighting drugs. Duke University bioengineers have developed a simple and inexpensive method for loading cancer drug payloads into nano-scale delivery vehicles and demonstrated in animal models that this new nanoformulation can eliminate tumors after a single treatment. After delivering the drug to the tumor, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient. Read More

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I know there are projects that need custom synthesis, medicinal chemistry or chemical consulting. Why wait any longer submit an inquiry!

Sincerely,
Bryan Roland, Director - Project Management
Bryan.Roland@asischem.com

Welcome Dr. Emile Bellott, Director of Medicinal Chemistry Services

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Emile (Mel) Bellott has joined our growing team as the Director of Medicinal Chemistry Services. In more than 25 years of industry experience, his pharmaceutical activities have focused on drug discovery and development, synthesis and design of small molecule therapeutics, and informatics and structural biology. He will be working closely with our customers, with our US-based medicinal chemistry team and with our Russia-based synthetic chemistry team, to develop and execute successful small molecule therapeutics discovery programs.

Prior to AsisChem, Mel co-founded and served as VP of Operations of two development-stage biotech companies and directed medicinal chemistry activities at several emerging pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. His operational experience spans medical devices, pharmaceutical development, chemistry outsourcing, and life science software. He is co-inventor on over 10 issued US patents and multiple patent applications. He earned a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry from Harvard and a MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Mel is a prolific author and some of his recent articles on industry trends are quoted below:

Global Environments: Navigating the Perfect Storm

Today’s pharmaceutical and biotech industry sectors are largely a product of the late 20th century. In the post-industrial era, manufacture and provision of pharmaceutical drugs have been organised and have prospered as fully integrated business units. One of the trends of today is the formation of new enterprises on a geographically dispersed virtual business model...

Adaptation to the New Industry Landscape

The pharmaceutical and biotech sectors are in the midst of unprecedented and disruptive change. The industry is straining to adjust to the economic and competitive forces at work in the global environment. The success formula for value creation and sustainable economic and competitive advantage is being redefined by an evolving understanding of the global marketplace and industry landscape...

RNAi – A Glass Half-Full

Gene silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) has captured the imagination of Wall Street and a new generation of biotech entrepreneurs. Rarely has there been so great a buzz surrounding a new therapeutic paradigm, including multi-billion dollar deals, venture capital funding of numerous start-ups and a Nobel Prize – all before the first marketing approval...

A Season of Turbulence

By late 2008, it was abundantly clear that the deepening economic recession would not leave the biotech sector untouched. In fact, the capital structure of the smaller pharmaceutical and biotech enterprises and their symbiotic relationship with the sources of private equity investment has left them vulnerable to the same forces that decimated the home mortgage industry...

October 2009 Newsletter

Greetings!

Happy Mole Day! I suppose have a scary Halloween as well. I don't know what is going on for Halloween, but I am definitely celebrating Mole day with Chicken Mole from my favorite Mexican restaurant (an old tradition from my time in Tucson, Az). I hope whichever holiday you choose to participate in you enjoy it as much as I will. Anyway, there were so many interesting research articles to choose from this month I just chose a few I thought you might like. Enjoy.

The Mole Song


Brain Proteins Suggest Possible Way to Fight Alzheimer's

DALLAS - Oct. 6, 2009 - The action of a
small protein that is a major villain in Alzheimer's disease can be
counterbalanced with another brain protein, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in an animal study.

The findings, available online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest a promising new tactic against the devastating illness, the researchers said. Read More


How Soy Reduces Diabetes Risk

AMHERST, Mass. -Nutrition scientists led by Young-Cheul Kim at
the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified the molecular
pathway that allows foods rich in soy bioactive compounds called
isoflavones to lower diabetes and heart disease risk. Eating soy foods
has been shown to lower cholesterol, decrease blood glucose levels and
improve glucose tolerance in people with diabetes. Read More

A Step Toward Better Brain Implants Using Conducting Polymer Nanotubes

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Brain implants that can more clearly record signals
from surrounding neurons in rats have been created at the University of
Michigan. The findings could eventually lead to more effective
treatment of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and
paralysis. Neural electrodes must work for time periods ranging from hours to
years. When the electrodes are implanted, the brain first reacts to the
acute injury with an inflammatory response. Then the brain settles into
a wound-healing, or chronic, response. Read More


Please send us some questions, inquiries, challenges or anything else chemistry related. Put our expert chemists to the test by submitting an inquiry!

Sincerely,
Bryan Roland, Director - Project Management
Bryan.Roland@asischem.com

CRO Insights: Turbulent Times

This is a turbulent time for most CROs. As many existing or prospective customers are merging or going out of business, many companies are finding it difficult to grow or even maintain revenues. Moreover, CROs are now investing more money as a percentage of revenue into business development activities, in an effort to boost business - that puts more pressure on short term profitability. Here are a few highlights from the industry:

1. AMRI invests in European R&D in Hungary, and sees revenue growth in discovery mostly due to the new Singapore site where it dominates chemistry outsourcing for Singapore's rapidly growing life sciences industry.
2. Covance experiencing decline in preclinical demand, in line with many R&D programs being frozen during the first part of the year.
3. deCODE sheds medicinal chemistry and structural biology units, unable to compete in a fragmented and crowded marketplace with many low-cost players.

CROs Are Hurting, But Better Times Are Ahead

CROs are hurting in 2009, largely due to softening demand from cash strapped biotechs that have halted discovery in favor of later stage clinical programs. Charles River's pre-clinical business is off 17% in Q1 2009 compared to same period last year. The good news for pre-clinical CROs is that these programs will get funded and restarted at some point. Money is already gathered by those that recognize a unique opportunity to buy into research programs at highly depressed valuations, as evidenced here, here, here and here. Companies whose programs get funded will likely outsource a lot of work rather then rehire those that were previously laid off, and those CROs that are still around will be overwhelmed with demand. Given the trend towards vertical integration, CROs that can offer complimentary services as part of a single agreement will likely have a competitive edge over their niche rivals.