Sophion Bioscience A/S (Sophion) in Copenhagen and Central Research Laboratories Limited (CRL) in London have entered a microtechnology development agreement to jointly design a new pharmaceutical research product for advanced screening of ion channel drug targets.
The two-year, £1.6 million collaboration will enable CRL to provide innovative solutions to assist Sophion in their objective to develop and launch chip-based medium and high throughput electrophysiology systems – a revolutionary new tool for pharmaceutical research and development.
The strategic alliance between Sophion and CRL will create commercial benefits for both parties that neither could achieve alone. This agreement follows the successful completion of the first joint development milestone. CRL will contribute to the continued development and manufacture of several key aspects of the technology, including microfluidics and chip packaging.
As well as participating in the chip development, Sophion will integrate chip components in medium and high throughput screening systems and provide biological expertise for operating the systems in the pharmaceutical industry.
“There is a great potential for improving the efficiency of drug screening and lead optimisation in pharmaceutical R&D. Our technology will improve patch clamp throughput several thousand times, and this collaboration with CRL plays an important role in Sophion’s strategy for rapid development of new products,” said Dr. Torsten Freltoft, CEO of Sophion Bioscience.
Ms. Julie Deacon, Director of CRL’s Microfluidic Devices Group, added “The impact of miniaturised technologies to provide high throughput analysis for the pharmaceutical and bioscience industries is expected to parallel the enormous impact of microchips on the electronics industry. This is a significant opportunity for CRL to apply its technology expertise to the Pharmaceutical marketplace.”
The collaboration is expected to be the forerunner of further commercial developments in the area.
page top
Join our mailinglist
Share this link