Society of Toxicology

Society of Toxicology Feedback: Cautiously Optimistic

The takeaway from our productive trade show exhibit at the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting in San Fransisco, was that the industry as a whole is cautiously optimistic—with an emphasis on the optimistic.

Vendors, clients, colleagues and investors stopped by the CorDynamics booth to check in and share the current state of business at their organizations.

The industry continues to try to balance the need for progress with efficient R&D expenditures.

In spite of constraints on hiring and large capital spending, projects are continuing to move forward with increasing momentum—especially early stage development and discovery endeavors.

Equity investors, a group usually more restrained in their use of financial superlatives, seemed to continue to emphasize caution, but were intrigued to the promise of 2012 and beyond.

Discovering a Return to Discovery

At CorDynamics, we are seeing an early and compelling return to discovery programs that may have been de-prioritized in the recent past. New inquiries in areas such as ischemia and reperfusion injury, along with atrial fibrillation have increased as of late.

Fueling these discovery streams will help to fill the industry pipeline with promising compounds for the upcoming calendar.

Regards,

Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO

Several Models Shed Light on Potential Pulmonary Hypertension Therapies

This week I’ve been in both Southern California and Western Europe – visiting exclusively with current clients to discuss their ongoing work in our laboratories. What’s interesting was the amount of renewed interest and discussion around very early-stage programs, including those nowhere near ready for GLP safety studies. What a difference from a year ago.

Overall, we’ve seen a promising uptick in the number and scope of typical IND-enabling CV safety studies along with their associated screening endeavors and mechanistic follow-ups. The supply of capital is loosening up for a number of biotechs, and larger Pharma companies continue to hone their pipelines via acquisition and the revisiting of projects previously placed on hold.

The demand for our discovery services has swelled noticeably since the start of 4Q’09 as well. You may recall a recent writing detailing our experimental offerings in pulmonary arterial hypertension. What started as a methods development expedition for one client more than two years ago has now blossomed into critical outsourcing relationships with multiple biopharmaceutical companies using several well-established paradigms in this therapeutic area.

But we’ve not been content with only PAH Discovery work; as of this writing, our laboratories are also actively conducting efficacy experiments in ischemia/reperfusion injury, thrombosis, congestive heart failure, and atrial fibrillation  — with the latter two areas strongly leveraging our expertise in advanced conscious instrumented models.

I had the pleasure of attending the 2009 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando during November. While sitting down with a current small biotech client – they also noted the window of progress opening again. For them, this meant the ability to finally start vetting promising compounds across therapeutic platforms rather than just focusing on a single area that’s been successful. For the industry as a whole, the ability to have multiple backup strategies in the case of primary failure will be critical as we navigate toward recovery.

I look forward to the 2010 Western Pharmacology Society meeting in San Diego during February. We exhibited at this meeting when it was held in Honolulu a few years ago, and the organizers use a brilliant tactic to break up the agenda and maximize the attendance. There are sessions during the morning and evening, with free time during the day to enjoy the locale. I hope to see you there.

Regards,
Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO