PharmBioTec’s department of Drug Discovery focuses on the synthesis of small, drug-like molecules for a broad range of therapeutic targets. Usually a large number of compounds is needed to identify an active species, or to improve the activity/pharmacokinetic profile of an initial hit. Instead of employing time and labor-intensive bench work, PharmBioTec has chosen another path, the one of automation. Towards this end PharmBioTec has acquired one of the most flexible platforms for organic synthesis on the market: Chemspeed’s ISYNTH.
“The ISYNTH is ideal for the screening of reaction conditions, parallel synthesis and combinatorial chemistry,” Dr. Kail, laboratory head of Drug Discovery, explains: “With its present set-up we can perform up to 48 parallel reactions in disposable vials of various sizes. The platform is suited for low and high temperatures, as well as for handling liquids, solids and working under inert or reactive gas atmosphere. Even the work-up is automated, for example by filtration and SPE. The ISYNTH can easily be upgraded and adapted to specific applications at any time. With it we can generate a whole library of compounds in almost the same time it takes to synthesize a single one manually. This gives us an edge over other pharmaceutical companies needing many employees for the same output. We are a small enterprise, but automation empowers us to work faster with short cycle times, and that is what counts in a drug discovery process.”
About PharmBioTec GmbH PharmBioTecGmbH is a Contract Research Organization offering high quality services in Biotechnological/Biopharmaceutical R&D during several stages in the drug development process. It has been founded in 2010 as a subsidiary of Saarland University and operates in close cooperation with the Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry and the Helmholtz Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. As such, PharmBioTec can revert to several decades of experience in design, synthesis, biological evaluation, formulation and analysis of new drugs. The idea behind PharmBioTec is to cover a large part of the timeline that leads to the marketing of a new drug. Three professors of Saarland University (R. W. Hartmann, R. Müller and C.-M.Lehr) have combined their extensive knowledge in different fields of pharmaceutical sciences to form a young and flexible company that facilitates free flowing innovation transfer between university, research institute and industry. PharmBioTec’s main objective is to establish and apply new techniques in the area of Biotechnology, Drug Delivery and Drug Discovery. Additional information
