Market
The development of new drugs is a time- and labor-intensive process. For every approved drug, up to 2 million substances are tested. It takes around 12 years before an active ingredient reaches approval stage.
Nevertheless, time and again, drugs have to be removed from the market due to adverse effects – with serious consequences both for patients and for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole.
One of the most common side effects is disturbance of the hERG ion channel, which can lead to cardiac arrhythmia. The American drug approval authority FDA, and the European drugs agency EMEA, now stipulate that all new drugs must be tested for their hERG activity.
Ion channels are also increasingly becoming a focal area of interest in drug research. Many conditions are caused by the incorrect functioning of ion channels, such that well over 10% of current drug research projects are now concentrating on this target class.
With technology from flyion, ion channel screening can be carried out efficiently, accurately and with a high measurement throughput. Possible side effects of potential active substances are spotted early on and new drugs are developed significantly more quickly, more cheaply and in a more focused way.