Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLP – News ), a leading provider of simulation and modeling software for pharmaceutical discovery and development, announces the release of ClassPharmer 4.7, the latest version of its state-of-the-art software used by pharmaceutical research scientists for analysis of chemical libraries and design of new molecular structures.
Dr. David Miller, team leader for Simulations Plus’ Discovery Informatics, said: “This new version of ClassPharmer further extends its data mining and molecule design capabilities with a series of powerful new enhancements, including features requested by our users as well as those developed in-house. One particularly exciting new feature is the ability to design molecules that replace a problematic portion of an existing candidate molecule with another structure (‘scaffold’) expected to have improved properties. This technique, commonly called ‘scaffold hopping,’ is extremely important in the drug industry because it allows chemists to salvage an otherwise promising drug candidate that could not have been taken forward due to ADMET liabilities, synthetic challenges, or intellectual property restrictions. ClassPharmer’s new design feature helps chemists to perform this scaffold-hopping task in silico (i.e., in the computer), allowing them to screen hundreds of thousands of replacement scaffolds computationally without the need to commit valuable resources to synthesize and test them all. These and other features of the new ClassPharmer version should be welcome additions to the already powerful set of cheminformatics tools provided by this software.”
Walt Woltosz, chairman and CEO of Simulations Plus added: “I just returned from a two-week trip to Japan, and some of my customer visits there involved showing what was new in ClassPharmer 4.7. The enthusiastic response I received from a number of chemists in different companies was quite encouraging. Coupled with our best-in-class ADMET Predictor™ software, ClassPharmer provides unmatched capabilities for the rapid design and screening of new molecular structures. We believe this side of our business is poised for significant growth, adding to the strong position we hold in the simulation of drug absorption and pharmacokinetics.”