Absorption Systems Awarded Japanese Patent for CellPort Technologies®

EXTON, Pa , Dec.17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Absorption Systems, a world leader in drug transporters, announces the issuance of a Japanese patent protecting intellectual property around its CellPort Technologies^® portfolio of in vitro test systems. The new patent, No. 5324456, extends the patent coverage on the company's transporter knockdown technology beyond patents previously issued in the U.S., Europe, and Panama. Absorption Systems' proprietary, cell-based test systems enable drug developers to definitively predict the risk of clinical drug-drug interactions (DDIs) involving drug transporters. 

Many drugs and their metabolites (breakdown products) are eliminated from the body via efflux (pumping) from liver cells into the bile by one or more transporter proteins. If a person is taking two different drugs, both of which are pumped out of the liver by the same transporter, they can interfere with each other's elimination, potentially causing liver toxicity. That's an example of one type of DDI. Since the same transporters are active in other organs as well, they can cause DDIs affecting the safety and effectiveness of drugs throughout the body.

DDIs often go unrecognized as the cause of unexpected side effects, therapeutic failure, or death. The risk of DDIs is particularly high among the elderly, due to the fact that most elderly people take multiple medications. According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, as many as 2.2 million older Americans are at risk of a major DDI, nearly all of which could be prevented simply by avoiding potentially unsafe drug combinations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was sufficiently interested in Absorption Systems' knockdown technology that the agency helped fund its development through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. 

These patented in vitro test systems were conceived by Absorption Systems' Chief Scientist, Dr. Ismael Hidalgo, who leads the company's research and development, including collaborations with academic, industrial, and FDA scientists. He said, "This new patent reinforces our commitment to develop better tools to predict clinical outcomes, improve drug safety, and save lives. CellPort Technologies can provide very definitive data on drug transporters, which is required by regulatory agencies such as the FDA. And the technology is exclusive to Absorption Systems." 

CellPort Technologies is a suite of cell lines designed to identify interactions between drugs and specific transport proteins. Drug transporters have been identified by regulatory agencies such as the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as key mediators of DDIs.* Absorption Systems scientists created these test systems by using RNA interference to knock down the expression of one transporter at a time, in such a way that the resulting phenotypes are stable. By using the knockdown cells in parallel with the parental cells, it becomes very clear, by process of elimination, if a drug interacts with a particular transporter. 

To learn more about CellPort Technologies and to view a video on the patented knockdown cell lines, visit www.absorption.com/cellport.  

*The FDA draft guidance on drug interaction studies is available at
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM292362.pdf.

*EMA guideline on the investigation of drug interactions is available at http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Scientific_guideline/2012/07/WC500129606.pdf

*The influential first International Transporter Consortium white paper on transporters and drug development is available at http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v9/n3/full/nrd3028.html.

About Absorption Systems

Absorption Systems, founded in 1996, assists pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies in identifying and overcoming ADMET (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicity) barriers in the development of drugs, biologics and medical devices. The company's mission is to continually develop innovative research tools that can be used to accurately predict human outcomes or to explain unanticipated human outcomes when they occur. The CellPort Technologies^® platform, a suite of human cell-based test systems for drug transporter characterization, exemplifies Absorption Systems' commitment to innovation and is soon to be an industry assay standard for in vitro drug interaction assessment. Absorption Systems, with facilities near Philadelphia, PA, in San Diego, CA, and in Panama, serves customers throughout the world. For information on the company's comprehensive contract services and applied research programs, please visit http://www.absorption.com.

Contact:
Chris Bode
1-610-280-1451
cbode@@absorption.com

SOURCE Absorption Systems