Vitalea Science Offers Microdose Services -- A Concept That Improves Drug Development and Serves as Alternative to Animal Testing

Vitalea Science offers a new technological platform that will shave years off of the drug development process, enabling the early testing of promising new drugs in people. The effect will be to reduce the cost of new drugs and reduce the number of laboratory animals sacrificed for drug development.

Davis, CA (PRWEB) July 15, 2004 -- Vitalea Science, Inc., a recent newcomer to the biotechnology industry, is the first commercial entity within the United States to provide Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) based services for contracted biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Among its AMS services offered is the relatively new research concept known as microdosing. Microdosing is an already proven viable human-based research methodology.

"Microdosing serves as an alternative to the use of animals in safety testing as it entails the administration of sub-therapeutic doses of a candidate drug to human volunteers. AMS is then used to obtain post-dose pharmacokinetic data," explains Dr. Stephen R. Dueker, co-founder and CEO of Vitalea Science. "In addition to eliminating the ethical concerns that surround the use of animal testing, the microdosing concept eliminates the problematic extrapolations from animal models that can increase Phase 1 failure rates."

A typical microdosing research program averages six months versus the twelve to eighteen months required in a standard bioavailability program; thus the method dramatically reduces the attrition of clinical trials and expedites consumer access to safer and more efficacious medicines. According to Dr. Le T. Vuong, co-founder and Executive VP of Vitalea Science, "AMS will continue to make a dramatic impact on pharmaceutical research due to its unprecedented capabilities. Part of Vitalea's mission in offering AMS based services to the scientific community is with the knowledge that AMS's impact on present research will ultimately improve the efficacy of medicines made available to consumers."

About Vitalea Science, Inc:
Vitalea Science is the United States first commercial Contract Research Organization (CRO) to provide Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) based services to the biomedical and pharmaceutical communities. The company was founded in 2003 by Dr. Stephen R. Dueker and Dr. Le Thuy Vuong, international authorities in the fields of AMS and nutrition research, and is a contracted partner with the worlds leading bioAMS facility, the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. For further information about Vitalea Science and its range of services, including Microdosing, Metabolite Profiling and Biolabeling, please visit: http://www.vitaleascience.com

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