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Weekly UpdatesCaliper Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALP), Hopkinton, Mass., a provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, has announced that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented initial analyses of Phase I data generated by Caliper Discovery Alliances and Services (CDAS) under the EPA's ToxCast(TM) screening program at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) held in Baltimore, MD. Separately, the EPA notified Caliper that it has exercised the first additional option year under Caliper's ToxCast contract with the EPA. Task orders under this contract have already generated approximately $3.5 million in total revenues for Caliper since the initiation of the contract in April, 2007, $1.2 million of which was recognized in 2008.
"We are pleased with the preliminary findings presented by the EPA," said Kevin Hrusovsky, president and CEO of Caliper Life Sciences. "These results, coupled with the EPA's third year option exercise, reinforce the likelihood for Phase II efforts to begin at Caliper in the third quarter of this year, which supports our expectation of receiving approximately $3 million of service task orders under this contract in 2009."
Caliper works with the EPA under its ToxCast initiative to develop new in vitro (laboratory) approaches to identify chemicals that are potentially toxic to the environment. The initial phase of the EPA ToxCast program was aimed at creating a database of in vitro assay data on a broad set of compounds for which in vivo (animal) safety data already existed. Key goals for this phase were to assess overall data quality and establish that the database was predictive of in vivo toxicity profiles. Initial analyses of the data generated at CDAS indicate that the goals for high quality data and potential predictive power have been met. For the 11 replicate controls included in the initial 320 compound set, there was greater than 99% concordance in the screening results across 240 assays tested, and more than 200 correlations between the in vitro results generated at CDAS and in vivo toxicity parameters have already been identified. In addition, 75% of the assays tested showed activity for one or more compounds, reinforcing the need for broad in vitro profiling.
"We believe this data presentation validates the importance of in vitro profiling as a tool for predicting potential toxicity liabilities of compounds and highlights the high quality data generated by Caliper," said David Manyak, Ph.D., Executive vice president of Discovery Services at Caliper Life Sciences. "Our access to the entire Phase I ToxCast database makes Caliper an ideal partner for collaborative data mining projects. We also believe that the assay screening panel employed by Caliper for the ToxCast initiative will be broadly applicable for product development programs within the agricultural chemical and pharmaceutical industries."
The ultimate goal of the ToxCast program is to develop a set of predictive in vitro assays that can supplement or replace in vivo tests currently used for regulatory approval of new environmental chemicals. If successful, the ToxCast initiative will reduce the cost and improve the speed of regulatory approval of new environmental chemicals. More extensive data analysis from the EPA is expected in mid-May of this year.
About Caliper Life Sciences
Caliper Life Sciences is a premier provider of cutting-edge technologies enabling researchers in the life sciences industry to create life-saving and enhancing medicines and diagnostic tests more quickly and efficiently. Caliper is aggressively innovating new technology to bridge the gap between in vitro assays and in vivo results and then translating those results into cures for human disease. Caliper's portfolio of offerings includes state-of-the-art microfluidics, lab automation & liquid handling, optical imaging technologies, and discovery & development outsourcing solutions.
For more information visit www.caliperLS.com or call 508/497-2215.
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