Axon releases new drug discovery tool

A screening instrument that enables drug company technicians to run parallel tests has been released by Melbourne-based company Axon Instruments (ASX: AXN).

Axon formally launched its OpusXpress 6000A workstation, claiming the product would boost throughput and costs.

The company said this would be achieved by automating a process known as electrophysiological drug screening, a process considered one of the most effective means of measuring cell responses to drugs.

Axon, which produces instrumentation and software for genomics, cellular neurosciences and cell-based screening, said the new system worked by directly recording the electrical currents passing through the ion channels studded throughout a cell membrane.

Such ion channels are implicated diseases including migraine, high-blood pressure, epilepsy and intractable pain.

Dr Alan Finkel, Axon's chief executive, said the new system applied drugs to, and recorded currents from, cells that were "programmed" to express a designated type of ion channel.

"Traditional tests are indirect and consequently offer less than ideal results," Finkel said.

"Moving into the drug discovery market, Axon is ideally positioned to provide solutions for increasing the throughput of ion channel drug discovery."

Axon hopes that its new product would revolutionise this form of drug screening, considering the large portion of FDA-approved drugs that acted on electrically or chemically activated protein membranes.