Selvita has secured an exclusive licensing agreement to become the first contract research organization (CRO) to utilize Medicines Discovery Catapult's (MDC) patented Chemical Protein Stability Assay (CPSA) technology. This breakthrough technology is designed to assess target engagement and accelerate the identification and prioritization of drug candidates in early-stage drug discovery.
Revolutionary Target Engagement Technology
The Chemical Protein Stability Assay represents a distinctive approach to evaluating target engagement that can be applied throughout the drug discovery process to support development, screening, and optimization efforts. Target engagement serves as a critical step in early-stage drug discovery, as understanding the relationship between drug/target binding and efficacy enables researchers to confirm the mechanism of action involved in their therapeutic approaches.
Unlike traditional target engagement assays that require multiple processing steps and can introduce variability, MDC's CPSA offers a streamlined, single-plate format that significantly improves both consistency and throughput. The technology utilizes cell lysates, which are broken-down cell membranes, allowing protein screening in a native context without requiring complex purification workflows.
Enhanced Screening Capabilities
Selvita is integrating the CPSA technology into its early discovery screening cascades, enabling rapid assessment of drug-target engagement at scales compatible with hit identification and hit-to-lead screening campaigns. The patented CPSA technology applies to a range of cellular protein targets and can be configured using different endpoint technologies to measure the amount of folded protein remaining after denaturation, depending on the throughput requirements for analysis.
This versatility makes the CPSA highly suitable for both early-stage high-throughput screening applications and later-stage drug candidate target engagement confirmation studies. The technology's ability to generate vital data supports drug discovery innovators in making more informed decisions throughout the development process.
Industry Impact and Future Applications
Dr. Francesca Sadler, Chief Commercial Officer at Medicines Discovery Catapult, emphasized the significance of this partnership: "We welcome Selvita as the first CRO to license our exciting CPSA technology and look forward to working with them to deploy it into their high-throughput workflows and generate decision-making data. The CPSA is the first technology MDC has patented, and we are delighted to provide this additional tool for drug discovery innovators to overcome some of the barriers in early-stage drug discovery."
Dr. Paul Overton, Chief Commercial Officer at Selvita, highlighted the strategic value of the acquisition: "We are really excited by this novel technology and what it can deliver for our customers. This agreement reflects Selvita's continued focus on expanding our scientific toolkit to better support our partners at the earliest stages of drug discovery. By integrating a robust, scalable target engagement assay into our screening platform, we're helping customers make confident, data-driven decisions as they advance new therapeutic programs."
The licensing agreement represents MDC's commitment to driving productivity and impact in drug discovery, with the ultimate goal of accelerating the path to commercial success and delivering medicines to patients more rapidly. This collaboration establishes a new standard for target engagement assessment in the contract research industry and demonstrates the growing importance of innovative screening technologies in modern drug development.
