Predicting permeability

As companies try to design better compounds earlier in the discovery process, one important piece of information is permeability - how easily a compound gets through a given biological membrane. Two companies recently reported permeability prediction models that use a very similar method based on information about a compound's structure. The differences come down to the data underlying the models and how they are built.

Trega Biosciences Inc. (TRGA, San Diego, Calif.) presented a poster at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists meeting in Indianapolis describing the use of a computer model to predict permeability in Caco-2 cells based on the structure of a compound. Separately, Simulations Plus Inc. (SIMU, Lancaster, Calif.) announced it would develop a similar model in collaboration with Affymax Research Institute, a subsidiary of Glaxo Wellcome plc (LSE:GLXO; GLX, London, U.K.)...