Introduction
Ferring’s commitment to creating new medicines means that the company invests heavily in technology to support the R&D process. Ferring has particular expertise in peptide1 technology and small molecule therapeutics and has developed two proprietary drug discovery technology platforms for these areas of expertise. In addition, Ferring is continuously upgrading the technological support that scientists can draw on to assist their work.
Technological Support
Ferring’s success in drug discovery is achieved through drawing on the company’s expertise in peptide1 and small molecule chemistry backed by state of the art technological support. In the creation of new medicines, there are a number of ways that technology can help scientists conduct research and development including the use of specialised software that allows scientists to build model potential compounds virtually.
Ferring has recently introduced computational chemistry2 and in-silico screening3 of virtual compound libraries4. This supports Ferring’s scientists in their endeavours to design and modify new compounds by allowing them to virtually analyse potential compounds before beginning laboratory work.
Ferring uses high-throughput (HT) chemistry, a system which allows the creation of peptide and small molecule libraries in order to conduct rapid screening of potential compounds. This combinatorial chemistry5 method uses automated and semi-automated processes to prepare new compounds from sets of building blocks.
To complement the HT chemistry, Ferring uses high-throughput screening6 of proprietary and compound libraries4, in order to tailor peptides or small molecule peptidemimetics7 to produce the desired therapeutic effect.