Tecan and pION Expand their Collaboration to Develop Automated Drug Screening Solutions

Following their successful launch of the manual assay systems for permeability and solubility, Tecan AG, premier manufacturer of automated liquid handling workstations and multimode microplate readers, and pION INC, long recognized as ‘the A in ADME’, have developed automated solutions for drug permeability and solubility screening. The new automated application provides scalability from an upgradeable, entry-level manual system, to a fully automated system with medium or high throughput, according to changing requirements.

pION’s Double-Sink™ parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA), a compound-sparing technique that helps to identify the most promising leads well in advance of cell-based methods, has been integrated with Tecan’s Freedom EVO® platform and Infinite® M200 plate reader in the PAMPA Evolution™. The system offers enhanced walkaway time and high throughput for fully automated processing of permeability assays, while automated miniaturized shake-flask solubility assays can be done with the similarly configured μSOL Evolution™. The flexibility of the Freedom EVO workstation also allows the same instrument to perform both permeability and solubility assays in a combined set-up, as well as other ADME assays. The advanced Quad4 Monochromators™ technology in the Infinite M200 provides excellent sensitivity and an optional MultiChannel Arm™ 96 in the Freedom EVO platform increases throughput with rapid sample transfers.

“Over the years we’ve invested heavily in developing new applications for our patented Double-Sink PAMPA that allows our licensed customers to conduct cost-effective screening prior to the more expensive cellular and in vivo GIT and BBB testing. We are delighted to continue working with Tecan, with its Freedom EVO platform demonstrating once again the consistently high quality and reliability of all its products,” said Dr Alex Avdeef, pION CSO and President.