Description

One of the present bottlenecks in drug discovery is in efficiently identifying drug targets for additional research. By employing bioassays in automated format, the characterization of a large number of drug targets can be streamlined. Standardized bioassays that can faithfully replicate biological reactions and generate informative data are essential for successfully performing high-throughput screening (HTS). The development of new technologies in functional genomics and proteomics has facilitated the discovery of an ever-increasing number of drug targets. These advances, together with high-throughput technologies for screening large compound libraries and sophisticated bioinformatics platforms, have resulted in an abundance of promising early-stage drug candidates. The investigation of end-user needs in Bioassays can be leveraged across several product categories with the goals of developing better products and expanding market penetration. To this end, the survey data has been placed in context by cross-tabulating it with the responses to an initial 14-question survey designed to provide baseline data on the nature of the respondent's drug discovery research. Included in these cross-tabulations are: the stage of research, type of research, disease targets, biological processes studied, and other related products and services used regularly. The results of the seven surveys conducted for this unique series of reports clearly show that past distinctions between the stages of drug discovery are diminishing. Bioassays is structured to reflect the market's integration, while highlighting end-user problems that represent exciting market opportunities for life science suppliers. Report Highlights Along with a comprehensive overview of significant findings, Bioassays contains detailed charts and graphs depicting the answers to all 34 survey questions and over 20 cross-tabulations. Below is a glimpse of the key findings derived from a few of the survey questions. • 40% of the respondents claim that their use of in vitro protein assays will increase over the next 12 months. (Question 10) • The majority (58%) of respondents report that "cost of assay kits and/or reagents" is an operational problem that they have encountered when using in vitro protein assays. (Question 14) • Only 1% of respondents expect their use of cell-based assays to decrease over the next 12 months. (Question 22) • "Variable performance with different cell types" (28%) is the most significant performance limitation experienced by a respondent's lab/group when using cell-based assays. (Question 25) • Amersham Biosciences (12%) was the company most frequently mentioned when the respondents were asked which company/supplier comes to mind when they think of bioassays. (Question 29) (Electronic copy also includes 1 print copy)

Table of Contents

Section 1 Executive Overview and Introduction 1-1 Among the Study's Key Findings 1-2 Bioassays, High-Throughput Screening and Drug Discovery 1-2 Innovations 1-3 Key Bioassay-Based HTS Innovations 1-3 Detection Methodologies 1-5 Bioassays for HTS 1-7 Evolution of Bioassays: Formats and Functions Section 2 Study Methodology and Demographics 2-1 Objectives 2-1 Comments 2-2 Assumptions 2-3 Definition of Terms 2-4 Market Segment 2-4 Organization Size 2-4 Laboratory Size 2-4 Job Position 2-4 Geographic Region 2-5 Area(s) of Research Section 3 Significant Findings 3-1 In Vitro Protein Assays 3-2 Cell-Based Assays Section 4 Presentation of Survey Data Product Use & Application 4-1 Current use of bioassays 4-4 Locations where bioassay experiments are performed 4-6 Principle reason bioassays experiments are not performed within own lab/group 4-8 Applications for which bioassays are used 4-10 Relative amount of time spent performing in vitro or cell-based assays In Vitro Assays 4-12 Applications for which in vitro protein assays are used 4-14 Detection method most commonly employed in in vitro protein assays 4-16 Percentage of in vitro protein assays performed using specific types of proteins 4-17 Average number of individual data points collected from the in vitro protein assays performed per week 4-18 Future use of in vitro protein assays 4-20 Most influential features in decision to use one in vitro protein assay over another 4-22 Most influential factor in decision to purchase one in vitro protein assay over another 4-24 Most significant performance limitation of in vitro protein assays 4-26 Operational problems encountered in using in vitro protein assays 4-28 Most valuable improvement to in vitro protein assays 4-30 Interest in automating in vitro protein assays Cell-Based Assays 4-31 Type(s) of cell-based assays used 4-33 Application(s) for which cell-based assays are used 4-35 Detection method most commonly employed when performing cell-based assays 4-37 Average number of days to perform a cell-based assay 4-38 Average number of individual data points collected from enzyme assays per week 4-39 Future use of cell-based assays 4-41 Most influential features in decision to use one cell-based assay over another 4-43 Most influential factor in decision to purchase one cell-based assay over another 4-45 Most significant performance limitation experienced when using cell-based assays 4-47 Operational problems encountered in using cell-based assays 4-49 Most valuable improvements to cell-based assays 4-51 Interest in automating cell-based assays Technologies & Suppliers 4-52 "Top-of-mind" company/supplier for bioassays 4-53 Primary supplier of reagents and kits for bioassays 4-55 Familiarity with suppliers of reagents and kits for bioassays 4-57 Estimated percentage of current total annual budget for products/services is dedicated to bioassays 4-58 Estimated percentage of future total annual budget for products/services is dedicated to bioassays Section 5 Benchmarking Data 5-1 Stage of drug discovery research 5-2 Type of drug discovery research conducted 5-4 Disease focus of drug discovery research 5-6 Biological processes or states monitored 5-8 Techniques used 5-10 Automated systems used 5-12 Types of equipment used 5-13 "Top-of-mind" company for products and services for drug discovery Section 6 Appendices 6-1 Overall comments as to where suppliers should focus their efforts 6-2 Cross-Tabulations of Survey Data 6-25 Related Reports 6-31 About BioInformatics 6-32 Our Valued Clients