Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLP), a leading provider of simulation and modeling software for pharmaceutical discovery and development, announced that it has released a major upgrade to its best-in-class ADMET Predictor™ software for predicting properties of molecules from only their structures.
Dr. Robert Fraczkiewicz, team leader for ADMET (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicity) Cheminformatics for Simulations Plus, said: “In this upgrade, we’ve released the Enslein Metabolism Module™ that we’ve been working on for almost a year with Kurt Enslein of Enslein Research, Inc., in Rochester , NY . This module predicts parameters that allow estimating the rate of the most common type of metabolism for drugs, known as hydroxylation. While there are some software programs that purport to predict whether or not a particular molecule will be metabolized by a certain enzyme, we believe this is the first prediction tool that provides the ability to predict how fast different compounds will be metabolized by five key CYP P450 enzymes that govern a large fraction of all human metabolism.”
Walt Woltosz, chairman and chief executive officer for Simulations Plus, added: “This unique new capability has the potential for major cost savings to the pharmaceutical industry. The cost to measure kinetic (rate) parameters for a single compound in a single enzyme can be in the thousands of dollars. With the Enslein Metabolism Module, scientists can obtain reasonable ballpark estimates for metabolic rate for five different enzymes very rapidly. ADMET Predictor processes on the order of 250,000 compounds per hour, predicting not only these metabolism parameters, but a suite of other critical ADMET properties. And we’re very proud of the fact that ADMET Predictor has been ranked number one in predictive accuracy in every independent comparison study we’ve seen for predicting several different properties, while no other software has been consistently in the top four. The high quality and rapid speed of ADMET Predictor, coupled with the integrated ADMET Modeler™ model-building software, make this tool stand out from the pack.”
Ron Creeley, vice president of marketing and sales for Simulations Plus, noted: “The Enslein Metabolism Module is an additional-cost option for ADMET Predictor. The rate parameters predicted by this new module can be input into our GastroPlus software to simulate the complex nonlinear effects of metabolism by these enzymes. This release has also been redesigned with several modules that allow customers to pick and choose the predictive capabilities they need for other predicted properties. This will allow smaller companies to select only the particular properties they need and obtain the software at a lower price. We’ve taken this step in response to a number of potential customer requests from smaller companies who wanted a lower entry point and did not need all of the predictive power of the full program.”