Simulations Plus, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLP), a leading provider of modeling and simulation solutions for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, and consumer goods industries, today announced that it has entered into a new funded collaboration with a large pharmaceutical company to add novel mechanisms for oral peptide formulations within the top-rated GastroPlus® Advanced Compartmental Absorption and Transit (ACAT™) mechanistic model.

“Our partner, a frequent user of the GastroPlus platform across multiple research sites worldwide, has a growing portion of their development pipeline focused on therapeutic peptides and proteins,” said Dr. Viera Lukacova, chief scientist at Simulations Plus. “Part of their strategy involves designing oral delivery systems which can safely and efficiently complement the traditional invasive routes for these biomolecules. In this new collaborative effort, we will expand the applicability of GastroPlus to simulate intestinal absorption of larger molecules and the effect of permeation enhancers within oral formulations. The novel approaches and workflows will be validated through unique data provided to us by our partner, with the results serving as the foundational elements for peer-reviewed journal manuscripts describing the exciting improvements.”

“What a great way to kick off 2021,” added John DiBella, Lancaster division president for Simulations Plus. “Over the past several years, we have driven advances in modeling and simulation science for injectable formulations of both small and large molecules. With the market for oral delivery of therapeutic peptides and proteins expected to increase significantly over the next several years, it was important for us to partner with experts and embrace a leadership role to expand oral absorption modeling beyond small molecules. Like other funded collaborations, we will own all improvements made to our software programs, and our entire user community can access these new capabilities to accelerate research timelines and develop better medicines for the patients we all serve. We continue to welcome and invite future collaborations across our entire suite of software programs.”