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Global Technology Innovators

It is our mission to revolutionize molecular design by dramatically improving efficiency and predictive accuracy, while substantially reducing the time and costs of the development and commercialization of new molecular entities.

About Us

Executive Summary. LITMUS Molecular Design, LLC, (LMD) a subsidiary of LITMUS, LLC, is a privately held, drug discovery and development company, founded in 2007. LMD has a technology that is disruptive and reduces the drug discovery-to-lead identification process from 5-7 years to < 6 months, thereby decreasing costs by $50-150 M per program, with unprecedented accuracy (up to 100%). The acceleration of development allows a potential for over 14 years of composition of matter patent protection at market entry, increasing the time on market before patent expiration. LMD has contracts with other companies to either design new chemical entities on a fee-for-service plus royalty basis (e.g., Parkinson, MRSA, AIDS), or out-licensing of LMD's existing portfolio of drug candidates (antipsychotics, HSP-90 inhibitors for cancer, and orexin receptor antagonists for multiple large market indications). LMD has demonstrated that their technology can produce banks of compounds designed to possess multiple desired product characteristics in 5-6 months. The technology's ability to predict clinical characteristics, rare side effects, and other market-driving characteristics, and then incorporate these characteristics into the design of new molecular entities, is unprecedented and increases the likelihood of clinical and commercial success.

Spectral Data Activity Relationship ("Spectral Modeling™") is a computational chemistry method used for drug design and optimization developed at FDA under a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement with LITMUS, LLC. LMD holds exclusive worldwide rights to the commercialization and development of the technology licensed from the FDA. Spectral Modeling™ is major technological breakthrough that accelerates pharmaceutical product development with a predictive accuracy superior to all other methods (combinatorial chemistry, QSAR, high-throughput screening, etc.). The process uses spectral data to link quantum mechanical descriptions of the molecular requirements for producing the desired product characteristics. The relationships between the mathematics of quantum mechanics and spectral analysis are well-established. This information is then used to design new chemical entities or for in silico screening purposes to produce a predicted product profile. The molecules designed using this technique to date have had almost no patent conflicts due to the nature of the technology which is based on atomic activity, not structural similarity. Unlike other drug discovery technologies, Spectral Modeling™ applies objective data, not subjective inputs, at every step of the process. Predictions are presented with valid statistical confidences. Three of the antipsychotic compounds designed using Spectral Modeling™ were synthesized and independently confirmed through in vitro and in vivo tests to have the predicted receptor binding and desired therapeutic activity for a "hit rate" of 100% versus industry standard hit rates of 1 per 10,000.

Proof of concept was established with the creation of a proprietary antipsychotic compound bank and through toxicity predictions of chemical compounds. Spectral Modeling™ was used to create new antipsychotic drug candidates, to optimize those candidates for efficacy, and to reduce side effects. 259 novel atypical antipsychotic drug candidates were designed to have desirable efficacy (based on the 5-HT2A/D2 model) and toxicity characteristics for the treatment of schizophrenia. These 259 drug candidates were generated from functional group substitutions on 5 novel chemical genera. Broad composition of matter patents have been filed for all 259 drug candidates. Three of the 259 new drug candidates were synthesized and their chemical structure and biological activity confirmed via chemical analysis, and in vitro and in vivo testing. Since the initial program in antipsychotics, LMD has created a bank of HSP-90 inhibitors as drug candidates in the treatment of breast cancer, and a bank of orexin 1 receptor antagonists for multiple disorders. Other efforts have led to potential applications to make synthetic compounds that have the activities of biological products. Should these pre-clinical drug candidates show clinical efficacy, Spectral Modeling™ could have a significant impact on the underlying economics of drug discovery and development.

LITMUS Molecular Design provides to its customers both products and services:

  • LITMUS Molecular Analysis Services (L-MAS).
    Solutions related to undesirable and/or desirable product characteristics for customer-identified compounds (e.g., toxicity prediction/ranking, information to support modification of existing compounds to improve efficacy/reduce toxicity),
  • LITMUS Molecular Entity Design (L-MED).
    Using Spectral Modeling to design new chemical entities for out-licensing or direct sale.

LITMUS Molecular Design provides custom solutions to specific problems. LMD is customer focused, delivering products and services that exceed its customer's expectations.