Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP), a leading provider of simulation and modeling software for pharmaceutical discovery and development, announces the launch of a new product that will assist pharmaceutical scientists in estimating the effects of physiological fluids on the solubility of drug-like molecules.
Dr. Michael Bolger, chief scientist for Simulations Plus, said: “One of the keys to understanding how a drug will dissolve in vivo (in living organisms, or in the body) is to know how soluble it will be in the very different environments of the stomach, small intestine, and colon. Most solubility measurements are done either in water or in buffer solutions that maintain a specific pH, but those fluids are quite different from the fluid environments found inside the body. Last year, we funded a series of experiments at Northeastern University to measure the solubilities of 160 drugs and drug-like molecules in three biologically relevant fluids: fasted state simulated gastric fluid (FaSSGF), fasted state simulated intestinal fluid (FaSSIF), and fed state simulated intestinal fluid (FeSSIF). These are called biorelevant fluids because they are designed to mimic the environments in the body to which oral drug dosage forms are exposed. Our scientists presented a scientific poster on this subject at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists annual meeting in November and received a large number of inquiries regarding the data. The response to this poster was greater than any other we’ve had, indicating very strong interest in this important area of science.”
Walt Woltosz, chairman and chief executive officer of Simulations Plus, added: “Our original intent was to use this data to build predictive models for biorelevant solubilities into our ADMET Predictor™ software and to support the simulations we run with our GastroPlus™ software. But the remarkably strong interest expressed in the data makes it clear that the database itself merits being a product in its own right. Therefore we have decided to license the data to the industry at a price that is a fraction of the cost to reproduce it, but one which we believe will generate sales well in excess of our original investment. The license agreement will preclude the licensee from redistributing the data in any form, including derivative works based on the data. We are now considering funding additional experiments in several areas to build similar databases from other kinds of information that are critical to the basic areas of science in which we operate.”