A Medical Device Daily

Caliper Life Sciences (Hopkinton, Massachusetts) yesterday unveiled Caliper Discovery Alliances & Services (CDAS), newly-formed from the integration of NovaScreen Biosciences (Hanover, Maryland), a provider of in vitro discovery services, and Xenogen Biosciences (Alameda, California), a provider of in vivo discovery services. NovaScreen was acquired by Caliper in October 2005 (Medical Device Daily, Oct. 6, 2005) and Xenogen was acquired by Caliper in August 2006 (MDD, Aug. 14, 2006).

Caliper said that through these acquisitions it has assembled various in vitro and in vivo products and services enabling pharma companies to reduce costs while increase the pace of drug research by building “In Vitro-In Vivo Bridge” [I-I Bridge] to find new drugs while minimizing the risk of adverse effects of those drugs.

“The launch of CDAS is one in a series of practical solutions that Caliper is offering the pharmaceutical industry, with the goal of reducing attrition of drug candidates as they move from in vitro to in vivo experiments,” said Kevin Hrusovsky, president/CEO of Caliper. “By building the I-I Bridge in the context of a services offering, we are providing scientists a way to explore new approaches to drug discovery with minimal resource commitment.”

CDAS says that it will be able to offer more than 700 in vitro assay types, including receptor, enzyme and ion channel screening and profiling assays, side effect and ADME-tox panels, and cellular models for immunology, oncology, and other fields. In vivo offerings include more than 85 pharmacological assays that measure over 400 different parameters for applications such as in vivo compound profiling and phenotyping, and target validation studies. Other in vivo services include creation of genetically modified animal models and biophotonic imaging-based animal models for oncology and other therapeutic areas.