TRIPOS INC. /St. Louis, Missouri Move Into New Market Might Be The Right Rx.(THE NEW AMERICA)

Byline: Gloria Lau

Tripos Inc. has made its mark developing software to help drug makers test new compounds. Now it's angling to get into a new, more lucrative side of the drug business.

The firm wants to sell chemistry services and products. That means it'll get its fingers far deeper into clinical research.

Rather than just assist on the sidelines with its software -- which helps drug makers figure out which drugs to study and which ones to exclude from costly clinical trials -- it'll take over some of its clients' initial drug discovery work.

Tripos claims that it can shave one or more years off the time needed for research, and thus save its clients millions of dollars.

"We'll take on a particular pharmaceutical problem for a company," said Tripos President and Chief Executive Dr. John McAlister. "Usually they say, "We have this disease (we want to) target,' and then we (Tripos) deliver an optimized lead. We can take care of all the drug discovery up to animal studies."

An optimized lead is one or more drug compounds that Tripos has reviewed and prescreened. The firm's researchers determine whether a particular compound has a reasonable chance of beating a certain disease when tested in animals, and later in humans.