SCIEX Announces Biologics Initiative

Mass spectrometry leader’s BiologicsFocus programs address industry shift to biopharmaceuticals

SCIEX, a global leader in life science analytical technologies, today announced a global initiative focused on biologics.  This new initiative is in response to the fundamental shift of the pharmaceutical industry into biopharmaceutical development.  SCIEX's BiologicsFocus Initiative consists of four components: new product development; beta software evaluation program; one-on-one connections program; and forums for sharing the latest advancements in biologics across the scientific community.  The company revealed this initiative today at the International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC) in Japan.

The BiologicsFocus Initiative represents SCIEX's open approach to producing comprehensive biologics solutions by involving scientists in industry and academia in the development of new tools. SCIEX already has a proven track record with its TripleTOF technology for bio-therapeutics characterization.  The company is now taking the next important step to address an industry-wide need - the development of data analysis solutions to simplify and accelerate biologics development.

Forty-two percent of new drugs in drug development pipelines of pharmaceutical companies are based on biologics, according to survey results published earlier this year by EvaluatePharma, a market research firm.  Moreover, the development of biosimilars, or "generic" biologic drugs, is dramatically increasing globally in response to legislation enabling their licensure in the United States.

The trend is to transition away from the traditional model of drug development, which is based on small molecule analysis.  The promise of biopharmaceuticals is that pharmaceutical companies will be able to more rapidly develop more effective drugs with fewer side effects. Recent advancements in technologies for large molecule analysis, such as protein characterization, have sped up the shift to bio-therapeutics.

SCIEX's biologics initiative includes the following programs:

• BiologicsFocus Innovation - SCIEX is developing a suite of new products specifically for biologics.  Because data analysis is considered to be a bottleneck for this type of analysis today, the company is focusing on software development in the first phase of this initiative to eliminate this bottleneck.

• BiologicsFocus Eval - SCIEX is actively developing new biologics characterization software..

• BiologicsFocus Summits - SCIEX will host information-sharing forums or "summits" as special events that will bring together opinion leaders who are driving the evolution of biopharmaceuticals.  This will also include an advisory network of scientists to provide input and feedback for ongoing product development.

• BiologicsFocus Connections - SCIEX will connect biologics researchers one-on-one with each other to cultivate new collaborations and advance this field of pharmaceutical science.

"We recognize biologics for its strategic importance to the pharmaceutical industry," said Rainer Blair, President of SCIEX.  "SCIEX is well-positioned with our industry-leading hardware platforms and our unique combination of strengths in both large molecule characterization and pharmaceutical analysis.  We are working closely with pharmaceutical scientists to develop and shape new software solutions that directly address the needs and requirements for the new frontier of drug discovery and development. We continue to be a trusted partner with pharmaceutical companies and academics worldwide."