What we think about Certara (CERT)
Certara in Three Words: In-Silico Drug Testing
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Background
It is estimated that it costs $2 billion and 10 years to bring a drug to market. Most of the time new compounds don’t even make it past pre-clinical trials. The high cost of drug development contributes to the high cost of the drugs. It’s a vicious cycle.
Certara is changing drug development through biosimulation – ways to mimic physical environments to test drug candidates quickly and cost-effectively. The company has created 25 different virtual patient populations and models for 10 organ systems. This allows drug companies to screen candidates to look for common problems like liver impairment, cardiac distress, drug-drug interactions, and even pediatric dosing.
I agree with the importance of biosimulation in drug development and how it is contributing to the way drugs are developed, tested, and marketed. All of the world’s largest drug developers are using biosimulation to make faster go / no-go decisions on drug candidates and inform the design of clinical trials. Companies are finding value in the form of increased number of drug approvals at a lower cost.
Certara is the leading biosimulation company and leverages over 20 years of knowledge. It recently announced its participation in its 300th regulatory submission. It continues to see quarterly growth in revenue but given its years in business and the growing use and acceptance of bioinformatics and biosimulation, I would expect it to see better results than it does.
The company is introducing AI and machine learning into its D360 platform, a leading scientific informatics software platform. The addition of novel AI will enable scientists to integrate multiple structured and unstructured data sources and substantially enhance predictions and analysis of content related to small molecules and biologic drugs in the early stages of drug discovery.
It also announced its acquisition of Applied BioMath, an industry leader in providing model-informed drug discovery and development support to help accelerate and de-risk therapeutic research and development. The combination of the two companies creates a powerhouse for quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP), a method of biosimulation used across the development lifecycle to predict endpoints, biomarkers and the most effective dosing regimen.
I’m sure that the new additions will provide value to Certara’s customers. I am hoping that it provides value to its shareholders as well.
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