Frontage Laboratories, a contract research organization (CRO) providing integrated, science-driven, product development services, has established a Quantitative Whole‑Body Autoradiography (QWBA) Center of Excellence (CoE) at its Exton, PA facility. The QWBA-COE is headed by Michael Potchobia (“Potch”), who has more than 28 years’ experience in this field.
 
The addition of QWBA and dosimetry programs increases the ability for Frontage to provide more integrated preclinical drug metabolism services. QWBA studies are designed to evaluate the time course of elimination for total radioactivity from tissues in animals. Tissue distribution data obtained from a QWBA study will be utilized to support regulatory submissions, discovery projects, and to provide dosimetry calculations required by regulatory authorities and institutional review boards prior to the administration of radiolabeled drugs to human research subjects.
 
This CoE is now fully operational for conducting QWBA studies and providing dosimetry projections for human radiolabel clinical studies (hAME).
 
“It is an honor to have Potch, a global leader in QWBA, head this CoE at Frontage Labs,” said Abdul Mutlib, executive vice president and global head of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, Frontage Labs. “The addition of this capability will enable Frontage Labs to offer a comprehensive set of preclinical radiolabel studies to clients. Furthermore, this should also greatly facilitate the conduct of human C14 ADME studies, which should be available at our Secaucus, NJ clinical site in the next few months. Finally, a one-stop-shop for all your DMPK needs.”
 
Dr. Song Li, founder and honorary chairman, Frontage Holdings Corp. and chief executive officer, Frontage Laboratories, Inc., said, “With this added capability, Frontage Labs can now offer a complete range of services all the way from early discovery to clinical. We are very excited to have this technology at Frontage Labs.”