IDBS expands its southern Californian customer base, assisting biopharmaceutical companies to manage their research data and facilitate collaborations
ID Business Solutions (IDBS), a provider of integrated data management, analysis and advanced decision-making software for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agrochemical industries, has announced several new customers for its flagship ActivityBase software suite in the southern California area.
This region is a hub of biotechnology innovation and the leading players seek technology that can help them maximise the value of their drug discovery data to create competitive advantage.
Among these organisations are Celgene, Maxim, Merck Research Labs, Ribapharm and Syrrx.
They have all benefited from the deployment of ActivityBase and its ability to manage and integrate complex biological and chemical data, facilitate collaborations and improve operational efficiencies in drug discovery research. "Despite the economic climate, IDBS' investments in people and R and D over the last 12 months are paying dividends," commented Neil Kipling, chairman and CEO of IDBS.
"We are pleased to work with such a wide range of innovative biopharmaceutical companies - both in the southern California area and around the globe - to help them maximise the value of their discovery data." Ribapharm discovers, develops and commercialises therapeutic products, principally in the antiviral and anti-cancer areas.
The company deployed ActivityBase in 2001 to gather, integrate and analyse its chemical and biological data.
Paul Diaz, principle scientist in drug discovery, commented: "ActivityBase is a highly versatile platform and the customisable nature of its architecture has enabled our team to build a repository of critical information and data that we can share across the enterprise to assist in the drug discovery process.
ActivityBase is one of the best out-of-the-box software applications that I have used and it has improved our productivity levels significantly.
The ability to work collaboratively and enhance the contents and functionality of the database to our specific requirements truly differentiates this application from others available in the marketplace." Maxim Pharmaceuticals specialises in the discovery and development of therapeutic candidates for cancer, hepatitis and other liver diseases.
John Drewe, manager, informatics, explains that ActivityBase has revolutionised how Maxim utilises its complex biological and compound data: "We have found the ActivityBase application to be the best overall package for HTS, compound registration and biological data management without needing any customisations.
We were impressed that we had been trained on the system, had implemented it and were utilising its functionality in less than two months." He continued: "The application allows our scientists wherever they are located to have access to a central, controlled repository holding verified drug discovery and development data.
This real-time access has improved interdepartmental communication, has enhanced our report writing and facilitates complex compound comparisons to be conducted using the most up-to-date and accurate information available." Celgene Corporation discovers, develops and commercialises human pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.
Following a rigorous assessment process, Celgene selected ActivityBase on the basis of its ability to handle complex pharmacological, biological and chemical data in one integrated framework.
Kyle Chan, senior director of informatics and functional genomics at Celgene commented: "The integrated framework of ActivityBase enables our scientists to access comprehensive chemical and biological data and work collaboratively, sharing crucial data to ensure that decision making is rapid and accurate across the enterprise." Based in San Diego, Syrrx focuses on high-throughput rational drug discovery.
Marc Navre, senior director of leads discovery at Syrrx commented: "We are using ActivityBase to collect, disseminate and post biological screening data and enzyme assays into a central repository for access by our team of scientists.
This ensures that we can work collaboratively across the enterprise and share results in a uniform manner." He continued: "It was crucial to us to find an application that had an open architecture that would integrate seamlessly with our existing Oracle database and one that would eliminate the need for us to be involved in time consuming and costly development of a bespoke database. ActivityBase has proved to be the ideal solution that is flexible and customisable to suit the ever changing needs of our organisation."
