BERLIN, Germany – June 06, 2012 – In the development of novel drugs, early recognition of potential toxicological effects and their underlying mechanisms is of utmost importance. To support the cost- and time-effective development of new compounds with more favorable toxicological profiles, Metanomics Health GmbH is launching MetaMap®Tox, a powerful tool for biopharmaceutical safety research. MetaMap®Tox is a service evaluating specific metabolomic patterns in vivo, enabling customers to better and faster identify potential safety risks of test compounds in in vivo studies of rats.
MetaMap®Tox has been developed in-house by BASF’s Experimental Toxicology and Ecology unit and will be marketed through Metanomics Health. Over a period of seven years, more than 500 chemical entities were thoroughly tested in vivo to generate and validate more than 100 metabolomic fingerprints of different toxicological modes of action. These data allow for a faster and better assessment of toxicological profiles of new chemical entities (NCEs). MetaMap®Tox thereby addresses key unmet needs for in vivo toxicology testing: predictability, understanding of a toxicology mechanism and the ability for translation to clinical use.
MetaMap®Tox has been technically validated by the Drug Safety Executive Council (DSEC), in a consortium approach of twelve leading biopharmaceutical companies following the goal to advance new technologies for the development of better and safer medicines worldwide. It will be offered in two distinct service packages: MetaMap®Tox Screener and MetaMap®Tox Profiler.
MetaMap®Tox Screener enables lead optimization in exploratory non-GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) tox programs based on predictive metabolomic patterns in rat plasma in 14-day studies. Benefits include coverage of systemic toxicological profiles of NCEs and unique mechanistic understanding based on 25 specific & predictive toxicological modes of action (MoA) in 11 different target organs.
MetaMap®Tox Profiler is targeting early safety assessment in a preclinical GLP toxicology setting. MetaMap®Tox Profiler covers 46 validated toxicological modes of action (MoA) in a total of 17 different target organs. Key attributes comprise the potential to detect drug side effects (e.g. liver and thyroid injury) at an early stage and a detailed understanding of systemic toxicology of NCEs, both leading to an improved lead selection and guidance for further toxicological tests.
“We are very happy to launch MetaMap®Tox Screener and MetaMap®Tox Profiler,” said Tim Boelke, Managing Director of Metanomics Health. “These have been designed based on feedback by the DSEC, whose members confirmed their great interest in a tool that provides predictive toxicological assessments already in the exploratory non-GLP phase. We are convinced that MetaMap®Tox addresses this key unmet need.”
“MetaMap®Tox has been developed by an interdisciplinary BASF team over a period of more than seven years to obtain early information on the toxicological profile whilst reducing the number of animals used,” said Bennard van Ravenzwaay, Senior Vice President, Experimental Toxicology and Ecology at BASF. “MetaMap®Tox is already in routine use at BASF, contributing to faster decision making and significant savings in terms of cost and time to market for the BASF Group.”
About Metanomics Health GmbH
Metanomics Health GmbH, a BASF Group company, was founded in 2003 and is a leader in robust, non-targeted and targeted comprehensive metabolite profiling services (metabolomics) to healthcare customers. Serving pharma, nutrition and diagnostics companies as well as academic partners, the state-of-the-art biomedical data interpretation combined with innovative bioinformatics and data mining systems enables discovery and validation of both simple and complex metabolomic biomarkers. Metanomics Health delivers novel biomarkers of disease and drug efficacy, increased mechanistic understanding of drug action and adverse effects as well as insights into underlying pathways to its partners, thereby providing actionable results for healthcare research and development programs. Learn more at www.metanomics-health.de
About BASF
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. We combine economic success, social responsibility and environmental protection. Through science and innovation we enable our customers in almost all industries to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and system solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring healthy food and nutrition and helping to improve the quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF posted sales of about €73.5 billion in 2011 and had more than 111,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN). Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Contact for Business Inquiries:
Niels Moeller
Tel.: +49 (0)30-34-807-400
Email: niels.moeller@metanomics-health.de
Contact for Media Inquiries:
Thomas Deichmann
Tel.: +49 (0)621-60-28574
Email: Thomas.Deichmann@basf.com
