Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP), a leading provider of simulation and modeling software for pharmaceutical discovery and development, today announced that it has released Version 8.5 of its industry-leading GastroPlus™ software program for the simulation of gastrointestinal absorption, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics.

Dr. Viera Lukacova, team leader for Simulation Technologies at Simulations Plus, said, “Version 8.5 is the result of many months of work by a number of our scientists and staff to add new functionalities and to respond to a variety of customer requests.”

The total number of enhancements is too many to list here; however, the major new features are:

• Infant physiologies in PBPKPlus™ now allow simulation of drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in infants as young as 16 weeks premature, with automatic scaling of physiological parameters with age
• Expression levels for UGT enzymes in human liver, kidney, and gut
• Expression levels for sulfotransferases in human liver, kidney, and lung
• Expression levels for CYP enzymes in dog liver and gut
• Novel method for transporter in vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE)
• A new precipitation model based on classical nucleation theory
• Ability to change physiologies during a simulation (as in growth of an infant over weeks or months), and
• Enhanced graphics for more insightful interpretation of simulation results

Dr. Lukacova continued, “In addition to the major features above, this release incorporates many more user convenience features, trapping of potential user mistakes with appropriate warnings, and fixing of some minor bugs. A new quality assurance testing protocol was implemented to ensure that this release performed properly across a variety of operating systems and in a variety of languages for our global customers. ”

John DiBella, vice president for marketing and sales of Simulations Plus, added, “Our customers have been waiting for this release and we’re pleased that it has finally passed all of our extensive testing with the many changes involved. We believe the additional capabilities in GastroPlus 8.5 add considerable value to our existing customers and will attract interest from an even wider audience in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries.”