Caprotec Bioanalytics said this week that it has successfully completed a collaboration with Roche that used the company's Capture Compound Mass Spectroscopy platform to analyze the interaction of an undisclosed drug candidate with human protein targets.
Caprotec said it was able to demonstrate that among the protein targets binding specifically to the drug in question were proteins showing activity in pathways commensurate with the drug candidate's phenotypic profile.
CCMS technology is based on capture compounds that isolate functionally selected proteins on the basis of small molecule-protein interactions. The company currently sells kits for the study of seven protein classes – its cAMP, cGMP, GDP, Stauro, SAH, SAHA, and Marimastat caproKits.
In the January 2010 issue of Toxicological Sciences, a team of researchers including Caprotec CEO Hubert Koster published a study in which they used CCMS to investigate the molecular basis for side effects caused by two Parkinson's disease drugs: tolcapone, developed by Roche; and entacapone, marketed by Novartis under the trade name Comtan.
In May, the company completed a $5.1 million funding round. At the time, Ute Mercker, senior investment manager at Caprotec investor IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, told ProteoMonitor that the round marked a shift towards increased emphasis on the company's ImproMed division, which applies the CCMS technology in drug development efforts such as the recent collaboration with Roche (PM 05/21/2010).