MicroConstants currently provides services to several east coast clients but has now decided to increase its efforts in the region. To lead the targeting of biopharm with new chemical entities (NCE) MicroConstants has appointed Sam Raees as east coast business development manager.
Raees’ appointment is underpinned by San Diego-based MicroConstants’ belief that the market for bioanalytical and other drug development services will slowly recover, a company spokesperson told Outsourcing-Pharma.
“MicroConstants has felt the economic affects, but we also note that the affects are due to delayed projects from pharma & biotech firms rather than the cancellation of these projects”, said the spokesperson. A slow recovery in the market is now predicted by MicroConstants
To support this recovery MicroConstants has installed a second Waters Xevo TQ MS system. Adding the second machine increases capacity by approximately 1,500 samples per week, depending on method specifics.
Using the two Waters’ units bioanalytical methods can be easily transferred to MicroConstants with minimal modification. Furthermore, proper optimisation on the Waters system will allow lower limits of detection to be achieved.
Boosting capacity
MicroConstants’ second unit is now operational, fully qualified and good laboratory practice (GLP) compliant. This increases the contract research organisation’s (CRO) total sample analysis capacity to in excess of 20,000 samples per week if all active projects are large sample analysis.
In a typical week workload is a combination of validations, small sample analysis projects and some large sample analysis studies, reducing the total number of samples processed below the 20,000 maximum.
Cutting capacity
Expansion of bioanalytical capacity includes the transition of some of the formulation analysis unit to the existing bioanalytical chemistry team. MicroConstants made this transition in response to several clients advancing from investigational new drug (IND) toxicology into the clinic.
This has reduced capacity for analysis of test articles from GLP toxicology studies. The reduction is a temporary measure and MicroConstants will increase test article analysis if the demand and volume of contracts improves, said the spokesperson.
“We aggressively train and cross-train our employees to perform analyses in our various departments. As the market demands shift, we can quickly and effectively transition our resources internally to meet those demands”, said the spokesperson.
MicroConstants’ drug metabolism and immunoassay departments are unaffected by the transition and will continue to expand based on market demands.