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Partner desk

Concept company: no real medicines.

02Science

One target. One assay. Then three tests no molecule skips.

Our platform is not a machine that produces medicines. It is a habit: decide what would prove us wrong, then try hard to prove it.

Read a second plate
discovery sites
2
molecule library
400k
plate readers
38
years of data in one notebook system
11

A second plate

Same plate. A weaker molecule.

This is OVT-319 in its first cell test, the same experiment as on our home page. Watch where the curve lands, and how steep it is.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 A B C D E F G H
Columns 1 to 10: the molecule, diluted Column 11: no molecule Column 12: a known reference
Column
12
Dose
Reference
Response
95%
0 25 50 75 100 1 10 100 1,000 10,000 Strength of molecule (nM, log scale) Response (% of maximum) EC50 900 nM half the full effect
  1. 01Further right The midpoint sits near 900 nM, not 70. The molecule needs about thirteen times more strength to give half the effect: it is less potent.
  2. 02Shallower The curve rises slowly across five columns instead of three. A shallow slope often means the molecule is doing more than one thing in the cell.
  3. 03Lower ceiling Even the strongest wells stop short of the reference in column 12. A gap like that is a question for the chemists, and the reason this plate exists.

Illustrative data from a concept assay for a concept compound. A weaker first curve is common, and is where medicinal chemistry starts, not where it ends.

From target to clinic

Six gates, in order.

  1. 01

    Target

    Show that the target matters in the disease, in two labs.

  2. 02

    Assay

    Build a test that gives the same answer on Monday and Friday.

  3. 03

    Hit

    Screen up to 400,000 molecules; keep the few that respond.

  4. 04

    Lead

    Make hundreds of close relatives; keep the best behaved.

  5. 05

    Candidate

    One molecule, three tests passed, a batch made in our plant.

  6. 06

    Clinic

    A first study designed to stop early if it should.

Three tests

What every candidate has to show.

01PotencyIt works at a low dose on the plate: its curve sits to the left of the reference.
02SelectivityIt hits its target and leaves the hundred nearest relatives alone.
03Safety marginThe dose that causes harm in safety studies sits far above the dose that works.

House rules

What we will not do.

  1. 01Publish a result that has not been reproduced in a second lab.
  2. 02Move a programme forward because a date is near.
  3. 03Describe an early result as a treatment.
  4. 04Bury a study that did not work. Negative results are written up and shared.