Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CALP), a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, today announced a strategic partnership between the company's contract research organization, Caliper Discovery Alliances & Services (CDAS), and Prestwick Chemical (Strasbourg, France) to provide customized outsourced medicinal chemistry and in vitro and in vivo preclinical biology programs for drug discovery research. The non-exclusive co-marketing agreement offers complete chemistry and biology research programs to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers increase identification of lead compounds.
The outsourcing of medicinal chemistry and biology processes is increasingly strategic as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies look to reduce costs while accelerating the pace and clinical relevance of drug discovery research. Through Caliper's partnership with Prestwick, drug discovery organizations are now able to contract out comprehensive chemistry, and biology screening and profiling activities, benefiting from Caliper's in vitro and in vivo research capabilities and Prestwick's expertise in medicinal chemistry for hit discovery, hit validation, hit to lead expansion and lead optimization. Clients can quickly screen compounds from the Prestwick Chemical smart libraries through CDAS in a panel of over 1,000 optimized in vitro assays to assess drug property improvement such as selectivity, potency and toxicity. Further hit-to-lead and lead compound optimization can be conducted through customized Caliper - Prestwick collaborations with customers.