Drug Analysis and Research
Supporting Assay of the Drug Candidates for COVID-19

For Responding to Urgent Need of Drug Development

Since the beginning of this pandemic, many research organizations around the world have been carrying out studies to find a solution to prevent the spread of the virus. To support their effort to reduce the time required to develop a treatment, which generally takes several years, and to validate the efficiency of new medicines in a short period of time, we have been working on the production of stable isotope-labeled standards* of drugs tested for their effectiveness against COVID-19. We developed synthesis methods for labelled standards* to be used in the assay of the drug candidates such as Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine and Favipiravir.

(*) Research Use Only. Not for Use in Diagnostic Procedure.

With the spread of the virus in Europe, clinical trials to find an effective treatment have begun at record speed, and it became very urgent to supply labeled standards to research institutes and CROs for the analysis of drug candidates. All chemists at Alsachim were mobilized. It was a race against time.

In addition to our daily chemical synthesis workload, we’ve had to face new challenges during this period: namely working with a reduced number of people and following strict health protocols to avoid virus transmission. During the lockdown, Alsace became a red region in terms of virus spread in France. It was a little hard to stay focused thinking about what was going on outside.

Even in this particular situation, Alsachim and Shimadzu continue to uphold on keeping the common thread of innovation. Shimadzu’s corporate philosophy, “contribute to society through science and technology” was fully implemented on this occasion and we can be proud of it.

These challenging times prove that Shimadzu can be a reliable and active company when coping with worldwide health and sanitary issues. In the future, this crisis must serve as an example to show us that it is essential to combine our group’s technological skills in order to provide customers with an all-in-one solution as quickly as possible for developing their analysis method of blood level of pharmaceuticals easily and rapidly (device, column, consumables, calibrators, standards, etc.)

We would like to warmly thank all of those who have participated, directly or indirectly, in the fight against COVID-19. Many thanks for everything you done; your courage and your devotion are priceless. From our side, we will continue our hard work to contribute to your efforts.

Support Customer’s Research through Analytical Method Development

My role during this period was to develop an application note quickly for an LCMS method to measure the molecules in plasma samples used in the assays of different drug candidates tested against COVID-19. In addition to requests for labeled molecules, there were also requests for LC-MS analytical methods for these molecules. With this application note we wanted to help research institutes in their research and contribute to the fight against COVID-19.

At first, it was difficult to find a consensus on the molecules of interest, because each country and each customer has different requests and points of view. We looked at the clinical trials developed and our own market analysis to find a list of molecules covering the most requests. Some of these were new molecules that were still very unknown in their range of concentration and mass response. A compromise had to be found quickly to combine them all in a single method.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented health crisis. We still do not know how it will develop or how we will have to live with it. Nevertheless, we redoubled our efforts during this period to meet the strong and urgent needs for these new molecules during this period. Working hard on a topical issue of such magnitude and helping to save lives has been a source both of motivation and significant pressure during this period.

This exceptional situation has confirmed that we are working together to do our best to advance science and contribute to the sustainability of society. In their desire to contribute to society through science and technology, Alsachim and Shimadzu wanted to support research teams around the world as quickly as possible.

For more details about the application note, visit Alsachim website:
https://www.alsachim.com/en/blog/get-the-analytical-method-for-covid-19-drugs-by-lc-msms-n24