Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) Studies

Your drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic partners (DMPK) are senior scientists including 20+ PhDs. Also more than 10% of our staff comes from large and small pharma backgrounds and they’re ready to help you with your toughest metabolism challenges. With the largest CRO-based drug metabolism services team in the world, Covance continues to explore new horizons and reveal opportunities for your development program. Our dedicated lab facilities at five sites across three continents offer you the flexibility and capacity for any study need.

Applying progressive platforms to your development program will help you make informed decisions faster. We continue to invest in the latest technologies and philosophies so you have access to innovative solutions utilizing automation, high resolution accurate mass spectrometers and the Three R’s principles.

Your metabolism studies play a crucial role in the development of your molecule. Toward that end, our cross functional team applies drug metabolism data across multiple facets of your program. From designing dose and compound synthesizing strategies to executing human AME studies, you have access to a team that has pharma experience and understands what it takes to move your molecule from discovery to your next milestone.

Characterize your compound’s ADME properties and potential drug interactions with an in vitro assessment from our metabolism team. You get expert study design and data interpretation giving you specific insight to help in the development of your non-clinical and clinical strategy.

Drug-transporter interaction models

Select the best candidate and meet the latest expectations of regulatory agencies by assessing drug transporters key to drug disposition. Our widely published scientists coupled with expert analytical capabilities walk you down a path that helps you reach your drug development milestones with confidence.

Absorption models

Understand your compound’s absorption potential by assessing membrane permeability with our Caco-2 in vitro absorption team. Caco-2 cell monolayers are an excellent model for assessing oral permeability and the investigation of absorption mechanisms involving P-gp and BCRP.

Plasma Protein Binding and Blood Cell Partitioning

Assess your compound’s distribution within animals or humans. Determine in vitro and ex vivo protein binding and blood cell partitioning with our team who utilizes equilibrium dialysis, ultrafiltration and blood cell partitioning techniques.

Drug-drug interaction models

Get an early read on the drug-drug interaction potential of your candidate while minimizing the use of animals with our in vitro and ex vivo metabolism assays. Our team routinely performs CYP450 induction, inhibition & identification, cross species comparison, and metabolite identification & profiling.

Reaction Phenotyping

Determine the chemical reaction metabolizing your drug and identify the associated CYP enzyme to better predict and understand the potential for drug-drug interactions.

Metabolic Stability

Establish the percentage of your compound’s metabolism over time using microsomes and/or hepatocytes. As your partner we will compare and assess your compound’s metabolic rate and metabolites generated across species to help you project human PK values. 

Combine your compound’s critical safety assessment with our unrivaled capability to design and conduct radioactive studies. Our team utilizes multiple isotopes while executing mass balance, placental transfer and quantitative whole-body autoradiography studies with specialized routes of administration.

Integrate your compound’s metabolite analysis across nonclinical and clinical study designs to improve your strategic methodology. With hundreds of metabolite identification assessments per year, our team of experts utilize the latest technology providing critical data to help you make informed decision faster.

Predict the metabolism and PK of your drug candidate in humans with flexible study designs incorporating in-life and/or analytical support. Our fast study starts, established in-house colonies and efficient study execution provide you a cost effective solution.