ChanTest to Highlight the World’s Largest Catalog of Ion Channel-Expressing Cell Lines and Discovery Services at Drug Discovery Technology, Booth 839

   Company CEO to present talk: "Successes Using Ion Channel Targets for

            Repurposed Drugs" on Wednesday, August 6th at 10:10



    CLEVELAND, July 17 /EMWNews/ -- ChanTest's role as the preeminent

provider of validated ion channel-expressing cell lines and services for

drug-discovery and development applications will be featured at the Drug

Discovery Technologies conference in Boston next month. The Cleveland-based

company will be exhibiting in booth 839 its expanding line of ion channel

services designed to give drug-discovery researchers the early information

they need to identify the most promising compounds, and eliminate those

that could be harmful. ChanTest's ion channel cell lines and services are

also becoming valuable new tools to help rescue shelved pharmaceutical

compounds. Dr. Arthur (Buzz) Brown, ChanTest's founder and CEO, will

address conference attendees on that topic as part of the panel

"Transforming Technologies in Preclinical & Clinical Development" that

starts 8:30 am on Wednesday, August 6. Dr. Brown's presentation, "Successes

Using Ion Channel Targets for Repurposed Drugs," is scheduled for 10:10 am.



    "Over the years the pharmaceutical and biotech industries have shelved

thousands of promising drug candidates because they may induce cardiac or

other dangerous side effects in a small subset of potential users," said

Dr. Brown. "This 'warehouse' of extant, withdrawn, or discontinued drugs

represents billions of dollars of discovery and development cost. Our

safety assays and rapidly expanding library of ion channel-expressing cell

lines are offering new hope to drug-discovery researchers looking to

recover and repurpose some of those candidates and recoup their previous

investment. For example, we identified a client's compound that had failed

for lack of efficacy but had an intriguing profile in one of our ion

channel panel screens. After validation in an animal model of atrial

fibrillation (AF), compound CT-1 is being tested for termination of AF in a

Phase 2a proof-of-concept clinical trial. Initial results of oral

administration in 22 patients show a termination rate of ~ 70 percent, well

above the 30-percent rate for the antiarrhytmics used presently."



    ChanTest scientists were the first to prove hERG as the target for

adverse cardiac events linked to non-cardiac drugs: Seldane (terfenadine),

Propulsid (cisapride), and Nizoral (ketoconazole), and ChanTest pioneered

the development of functional, cell-based ion channel testing as a means to

predict cardiac side effects produced by non-cardiac drugs. Such testing is

now a standard component of regulatory submissions prior to the approval of

drugs for use in humans. ChanTest is committed to innovation, and is

leading the next major advance in ion channel research and services with a

$10 million program to develop the world's most extensive library or

catalog of ion channels. ChanTest's expert electrophysiologists fully

validate the ion channels for interrogation with functional,

pharmacological, and biochemical assays.



    The 13th Annual World Congress of Drug Discovery & Development of

Innovative Therapeutics takes place August 4-7, 2008 at the World Trade

Center Boston and The Seaport Hotel. The Exhibition runs August 5-6.

    About ChanTest



    The preeminent ion channel services company, ChanTest serves its drug

discovery and development customers with GLP safety and automated screening

assays using its library of ion channel-expressing cell lines -- the most

comprehensive in the world. Since its inception in 1998, ChanTest has

tested more than 18,000 compounds for more than 250 global pharmaceutical

and biotech companies -- helping them to achieve their drug safety and

discovery goals. ChanTest works in partnership with customers to speed the

drug-development process, save time and money, and ultimately -- to help

make better, safer drugs. Because of ChanTest's seminal role in this field,

along with the company's uncompromising commitment to quality, ChanTest was

named "most trusted fee-for-service provider" for ion channel screening in

the HTStec Ion Channel Trends Survey for two years in a row. ChanTest is

based in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, please visit

http://www.chantest.com.



    Media contact: Caroline A. Grossman, 781.771.5579

[email protected]



    Company contact: Robert D. Schultek T: 216-332-1665 x108, C:

216-272-4449 [email protected]