SAN JOSE, Calif.--(Business Wire)--HTS laboratories continue to evolve their processes and strategies
to increase their success rates and improve efficiencies in their drug
discovery efforts. New strategies include the use of phenotypic and
pathway-based assays in primary or secondary screening, the use of new
targets and the expansion in the diversity of compounds screened for
new drug candidate leads. The Directors at HTS laboratories also plan
to employ new technologies, including the use of label-free
technologies and new detection systems to aid in finding new drug
candidate leads.

HTS laboratories continue to show year to year success at
producing new drug candidates. Fifty-five directors from HTS
laboratories participating in this recently published study, High
Throughput Screening 2007: New Strategies, Success Rates and Use of
Enabling Technologies, identified 163 drug candidates that originated
from their HTS laboratories, a significant increase from HighTech
Business Decisions' earlier study. With new HTS laboratories funded
through NIH or other private foundations beginning to ramp-up their
operations, this new report includes analysis and data from interviews
with HTS laboratory directors at these centers to better understand
their plans and their impact on drug discovery efforts.

William Downey, President of HighTech Business Decisions,
explains, "HTS laboratories are taking on new challenges as they
expand their role in drug discovery. In the past two years, the
industry has seen consolidation in HTS laboratories as many
pharmaceutical companies have either merged or acquired other
operations. This consolidation along with the challenges to improve
drug discovery efforts is leading to changes in the way particular HTS
laboratories operate. In addition to the changes in commercial HTS
laboratories, over the past two years publicly funded and
non-commercial HTS laboratories have been started, and in the next few
years these laboratories will ramp-up their operations." HighTech
Business Decisions extensively interviewed 55 Directors at HTS
laboratories in Asia, Europe and North America.