Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. has launched Caliper Discovery Alliances & Services (CDAS), a new organization created from Caliper’s acquisition of NovaScreen Biosciences, a provider of in vitro discovery services, and Xenogen Biosciences, a provider of in vivo discovery services. NovaScreen was acquired in October 2005 and Xenogen was acquired in August 2006.

Caliper’s strategy is to provide its customers with the tools for building an “In Vitro-In Vivo Bridge” to address drug discovery pressures to find new drugs while minimizing the risk of adverse effects.

“The launch of CDAS is one in a series of practical solutions that Caliper is offering the pharmaceutical industry, with the goal of reducing attrition of drug candidates as they move from in vitro to in vivo experiments,” said Kevin Hrusovsky, president and chief executive officer of Caliper. “By building the I-I Bridge in the context of a services offering, we are providing scientists a way to explore new approaches to drug discovery with minimal resource commitment.”

CDAS will offer more than 700 in vitro assay types, including receptor, enzyme, and ion channel screening and profiling assays, side effect and ADME-tox panels, and cellular models for immunology, oncology, and other fields. In vivo offerings include more than 85 pharmacological assays that measure more than 400 different parameters for applications such as in vivo compound profiling and phenotyping, and target validation studies. Other in vivo services include creation of genetically modified animal models and biophotonic imaging-based animal models for oncology and other therapeutic areas.

“The demand for outsourced drug discovery services is growing rapidly as companies increasingly recognize the critical need for comprehensive characterization of potential safety or side effect liabilities of their drug candidates,” said David Manyak, executive vice president of discovery services of Caliper Life Sciences and head of CDAS. “We are excited to now be one of the few providers focused on offering services that span in vitro and in vivo experimentation, and look forward to working in partnership with our customers to help them bring safe and effective new drugs to market.”