CPSA Digest 2001

Proceedings -Tuesday, October 9, 2001

TuOD1

Open Access and Analytical Service Technologies:
Strategies for the Next Generation Support of Medicinal Chemistry

Background:
By providing medicinal chemists with ready access to dependable OA-MS instrumentation, broadly applicable methods, and a basic training in instrument use and data interpretation, the use of MS data to guide chemical synthesis work has become an expectation in the pharmaceutical industry. Over the past six years, there has been a ten-fold increase in open access MS for structure elucidation analysis.

Premise:
The key to sustaining this growth of open access and usability is to support and nourish many important relationships, namely (1) chemist to vendor, (2) vendor to analytical and (3) chemist to analytical. Communication is paramount to understanding of customer needs and the support structure required. Some important questions to ask are the following:

• Who has responsibility for purchase, maintenance and technical issues?
• What MS technologies are supported?
• What type of samples can be run?
• How many chemists does each system support?
• In which laboratories are the systems located?

1. Centralized open access laboratory
2. Benchtop distribution with analytical support
3. Benchtop distribution with medicinal chemistry support

Scenario 1. Centralized open access laboratory

Advantages
Diverse MS resources
Balances workload across organization
One resource for equipment and support
Easy to maintain state-of-the-art
Space resources easily expanded
Department expense reduced

Challenges
One-size fits all design
Large customer base
Not directly accessible or available

Scenario 2. Benchtop distribution with analytical support

Advantages
Immediate access within laboratory
Customized to needs of Client
One resource for equipment and support
Small, selected customer base for each instrument

Challenges
Limited MS resource diversity
Laboratory Space
   -Limited room for expansion
Department expense increased
   -Additional instrument purchases
   -No work = instrument not used
Requires MC liaison

Scenario 3. Benchtop distribution with medicinal chemistry support

Advantages
Direct system control and design
Immediate access within laboratory
Small, selected customer base for each instrument
Customized to needs of Client

Challenges
Requires dedicated MC support
Limited MS resource diversity
Laboratory Space
   -Limited room for expansion
No MS expertise
   -Interpretation
   -Maintenance
Department expense increased
   -Additional instrument purchases
   -No work = instrument not used

Note: Who is synthesizing new compounds if chemists spend their time in support here?

Future Directions
In the future, enabling technology can potentially present the following picture: