Kirsten Craven

Want to accelerate your drug discovery workflow?

Aug 4, 2023 | Blogs, Echo® MS+ system, Pharma | 0 comments

Read Time: 2 minutes

Bringing a new drug to market is a costly and complex process. With potentially hundreds of thousands of new compounds to screen during drug discovery, sample throughput is a common bottleneck for pharmaceutical companies. So how do you overcome this barrier?

The challenges
Let’s dig a little deeper into some of the related organizational challenges. On average, the development time for a new drug is 10–15 years, and Deloitte recently reported that the average cost of approving a new pharmaceutical for clinical use rose to $2.3 billion in 2022¹. Since approximately 90% of new drug candidates fail during development, the ability to make early, informed and accurate decisions about the safety and efficacy of new leads is key to saving time, reducing costs and maximizing success.

The solution
The Echo® MS system, which can provide accurate mass spectrometry data in seconds, can help ease these challenges. Based on Acoustic Ejection Mass Spectrometry (AEMS), this system removes the need for chromatographic separation, which increases analytical speed without compromising data quality.

This free infographic explores the concepts of AEMS-based workflows, and the benefits of using this approach for efficient and rapid lead optimization of drug candidates. For example:

Analysis is up to 50x faster than traditional LC-MS
Nanoliter sample consumption allows repeated analysis of the same sample
Acoustic ejection eliminates chromatography-related issues and minimizes sample carryover
A common compound database enables you to work globally
Easy integration into existing workflows simplifies implementation

Curious to know more?
Learn more by exploring the following content, where data from the instrument is used to demonstrate what the system offers.

Rapid MS/MS analysis with Acoustic Ejection Mass Spectrometry (AEMS)

The Echo® MS system from SCIEX breaks through bottlenecks in quantitative mass spectrometry throughput. This technical note describes a rapid, chromatography-free approach to MS/MS analysis and showcases the potential of AEMS to dramatically change the field of high-throughput analysis.

High-throughput metabolite quantification for synthetic biology

This technical note shares a quantitative approach for the screening of 90 yeast strains to monitor over 60 metabolites. This workflow demonstrates the ability of the Echo® MS system to rapidly screen a biological matrix for key metabolites of interest with significantly reduced analysis times.

References

Pharma R&D return on investment falls in post-pandemic market. Deloitte, January 9, 2023. https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/pharma-r-d-return-on-investment-falls-in-post-pandemic-market.html

Echo® and Echo® MS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Labcyte, Inc. in the United States and other countries, and are being used under license.

Why SCIEX partners with experts around the world

Innovation in mass spectrometry does not happen in isolation. Some of the most impactful scientific advances emerge from highly specialized research communities – proteomics experts developing new peptide identification workflows, metabolomics researchers curating spectral databases, toxicologists building compound libraries, and biopharma scientists creating novel characterization methods.

Managing ADC characterization: The challenge of turning complexity into confidence

Unlike traditional monoclonal antibodies, ADCs combine an antibody backbone with linker chemistry and a cytotoxic payload. This multi-component architecture introduces overlapping layers of heterogeneity, including drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) distributions, charge variants, post-translational modifications, and structural changes at both the intact and subunit levels. Across ADC development, these characteristics are considered critical quality attributes that must be characterized, understood, and monitored.

3 reasons ZT Scan DIA is changing the game in metabolomics

For years, metabolomics researchers have faced a frustrating reality: modern high-resolution mass spectrometers can detect tens of thousands of molecular features, yet only a fraction can be confidently identified. The challenge is no longer finding molecules. It is generating the high-quality MS/MS data needed to confidently assign structures and extract meaningful biological insights.

Posted by

Kirsten Craven

Kirsten Craven is the Senior Global Marketing Manager for Pharma global strategic marketing at SCIEX. In this role, she manages strategic marketing for the pharmaceutical industry. Kirsten spent the first part of her career working in laboratories across multiple industries before moving into product management, and most recently pharma marketing.

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