Ballerup, Denmark (November 9, 2005)
Sophion Bioscience A/S, Copenhagen Denmark and Physio-Tech, Tokyo, Japan signed an agreement appointing Physio-Tech the exclusive distributor of QPatch 16 systems in Japan.
Physio-Tech will also make installations and provide technical support for QPatch systems, while customer demonstrations and first hand application support will be provided in a non-profit collaboration with Drug Safety Testing Center (DSTC) located in Saitama near Tokyo.
Dr. Torsten Freltoft, CEO of Sophion, says: “Since the QPatch has now been installed at most big pharma companies and a broad range of other companies in the USA and Europe, we are also very happy to increase our focus on the extremely promising Japanese market for automated patch clamping together with Physio-Tech.”
Mr. Hiroyuki Yamaho, Sales Manager of Physio-Tech adds: “The Japanese drug discovery companies are very excited about the unique features of this 2’nd generation automated patch clamp system – especially the 4 hour walk-away capability. So we have very high expectations for our collaboration with Sophion.”
“Since the installation of the first QPatch system in Japan this summer at DSTC we have been able to increase our contract patch clamp capacity dramatically, and we look very much forward to this new initiative”, concludes Dr. Yuji Tsurubuchi, Director of DSTC.
QPatch™16 is the first automated patch clamp system providing real giga seal patch clamp data on an industrial basis. The system has integrated cell preparation and QPlate™ exchange facilities enabling several hours of unattended operation. The unique microfluidic flow channels in the consumable QPlates™ enables liquid exchange around the cell in less than 100 ms and provides the option to test multiple compounds or concentrations on the same cell.
Introducing automated patch clamping into ion channel drug discovery as well as safety screening will make the preclinical process much more effective, ultimately providing better quality drugs faster.
It is estimated that the total market for this kind of measuring system and consumables will grow to an annual market in the range of USD 100 million.
For more information about Physio-Tech, please contact Mr. Hiroyuki Yamaho at
+81 3 3864 2781 or yamaho@physio-tech.co.jp.
For more information about Sophion, please contact CEO Torsten Freltoft, PhD at +45 4460 8811 or tof@sophion.com. Please also visit www.sophion.com
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