The contract research, development, and manufacturing organization (CDMO) AMRI has aligned with Metrion Biosciences, a specialist ion channel contract research organization (CRO) and drug discovery company.
Under the collaboration agreement, AMRI will offer its clients access to Metrion's portfolio of assay tools and technologies for ion channel screening, cardiac safety profiling, and neuroscience applications.
In turn, Metrion customers will gain access to AMRI's suite of integrated drug discovery solutions, which includes medicinal chemistry, high content imaging, cell-based assays, high-throughput screening and screening by mass spectrometry.
“Ion channels are a class of well-validated drug targets. Many ion channels are linked to human disease by known disease-causing mutations in human,” said Kathy Bove, VP of global drug discovery business development at AMRI.
Further, there are numerous approved drugs that target ion channels, several of which have reached blockbuster status, she explained.
“Novel findings linking ion channels to other diseases and new technology approaches to find drugs effecting ion channel function make this an exciting class of targets for future drug discovery,” Bove told us.