As a Senior Director for Discovery in the pharma division at KCAS, I would like people to think of “Bioanalytical Discovery” as a stage in drug development; one where you are doing your final experiments and pilot studies before advancing to a GLP pre-clinical state. Also I would like people to think beyond the services typically associated with a small molecule (these are usually drug-like molecules that follow the “lipinski 5” rules). The type of services and assays with which KCAS has a lot of experience address a wide range of drug types and molecules. One example is mixed-mode macromolecules. This is where you take combined molecules from different classes of compounds and combine them, like a drug molecule with a synthetic polymer, or imbed it in a nanoparticle. Another service KCAS has offered for our Discovery customers is the High-Throughput PK, both by analytical (including the PK parameter analysis) and the extended PK studies. We have experience with long-chain fatty acids, biomarkers, oligonucleotides, and a number of other compounds, which allows us to offer truly a wide range of assays when it comes to your discovery work.

But it’s not just the level of our experience that sets us apart – it is our approach. KCAS utilizes a strategy we refer to as our “Powder-to-Report” process. Essentially what this means is that everyone involved with your testing stays involved throughout the entire process; every step of the way. This eliminates bottlenecks, because everyone is always up to speed on the project as it transitions to its next steps: Method Development, Sample Analysis, etc. Even if one individual might not be available for whatever reason, another member of the team can step up and continue moving the ball forward.

Another differentiator KCAS has when it comes to Discovery is the framework we have and the training we institute – Everybody is trained using the same parameters. This way there is no variance in “styles” of methods or analysis. Everyone involved takes the same defined steps. This reduces the time it takes to accomplish any project and allows us to offer very aggressive turnaround times for this Discovery work. Our customers know they can get started with us right away – and they know we will turn it around very fast for them.

In fact, the past few years since KCAS put an emphasis on Discovery work, we have had quite a few “rescue projects” (when we picked up the ball dropped by another CRO and ran with it for our customer). This tells us that our strategy is working – we have consistently been able to either improve upon what was being done or even design assays from scratch to meet the needs of our customers.

We look forward to evaluating your project with you soon! Please use the form below to let us know when you are available to meet!