Press Release

Certara, a leading provider of drug discovery and development software and scientific consulting services, announced that it has released a new version of Phoenix, the industry leading PK/PD modeling software platform that is used by more than 4,000 researchers at 2,000 institutions, including the FDA.

All Phoenix tools are accessed within a single graphical user interface for ease of use and can be used individually or together. Certara continues to offer free upgrades to the Phoenix products for all currently licensed users. The newly available products include:

• Phoenix WinNonlin 6.3
• Phoenix NLME 1.2
• Phoenix Connect 1.3
• AutoPilot Toolkit 2.1 for Phoenix
• IVIVC Toolkit 2.1 for Phoenix WinNonlin

“This release of Phoenix represents a very important milestone. In addition to releasing the first commercial implementation of the Quasi-Random Parametric Expectation Maximization (QRPEM) algorithm for population PK/PD modeling, this version of Phoenix adds critical infrastructure improvements, usability enhancements and improved linkage with third-party tools,” said Daniel Weiner, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and General Manager of Certara.

“The strong adoption of Phoenix by the industry over the last three years has been very gratifying,” continued Dr. Weiner. “Many organizations are now building and sharing re-usable workflows within Phoenix to meet the demand of improved efficiency. Even less experienced users are able to quickly perform analysis in a consistent and repeatable manner. Phoenix has evolved into a single integrated platform that can support the needs of pre-clinical DMPK, clinical pharmacology and formulations departments, allowing it to truly support translational science approaches to drug development.”

Key Developments included in the new release include:

• The QRPEM algorithm in Phoenix NLME is designed to be faster and more accurate than existing mixed effects modeling methods due to a vastly improved sampling method. For certain test cases, the QRPEM algorithm has been found to be between 2X and 5X faster than other similar EM methods.
• This release of Phoenix Connect has increased support for the development of integrated workflows that include algorithms from third party software, such as NONMEM, SAS, S+ or R. In the latest release a PsN (Pearl speaks NONMEM) plug-in has been added to Phoenix to facilitate re-runs and storage of PsN runs. In addition, Phoenix now allows any of the third-party compute jobs to be executed remotely on a high performance compute cluster through a Remote Processing Server. These advances now allow Phoenix to more fully support pharmacometrics workflows based on either Phoenix NLME or third party software, truly supporting a user defined, best-of-breed environment.
• Phoenix Connect plug-ins (NONMEM, R, SAS, S-plus) now allow users to edit scripts in the native 3rd party Graphical User Interface. The scripts can then be pulled back into Phoenix and stored within the Phoenix Project file.
• Phoenix now contains many infrastructure improvements, such as 64-bit support, improved data handling, an improved Object Browser, re-usability of graph templates, improved graphing and many efficiency enhancements.

About Certara

Certara™ is dedicated to improving human health through a broad spectrum of software products and services, from molecular discovery through clinical development, with special focus on supporting translational approaches to drug development. Certara was formed by uniting industry leaders Tripos, provider of innovative scientific software solutions and services enabling life science researchers to improve the efficiency of molecular discovery; Simcyp, a research-based company providing predictive pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic tools, workshops and consultancy services; and Pharsight® Corporation, provider of software and scientific consulting services to improve productivity and decision-making in preclinical and clinical drug development.Each Certara family brand has a primary focus on a key phase within the drug discovery and development process; combined, they offer a unique set of capabilities for modeling, analysis, and simulation and scientific informatics that can enable the cross-disciplinary approaches necessary for translational science initiatives. For more information, visit www.certara.com.

Last updated on: 10/04/2012 16:00:01