Zorilla Research

Zorilla Research

Zorilla Research is changing the way commercial pharmaceuticals are developed by using computational technology that predicts problem interactions of a drug in the early stages of development. This enables the developing company to repurpose failed compounds earlier in the process and prevent costly late-stage drug trial failures.

At present, the failure rate of new chemical entities (NCEs) in the pharmaceutical space is around 87%. That is to say, almost 90% of chemical compounds identified as potential drugs fail at some point on the path to approval.

The current trend in the pharmaceutical industry toward shifting risk to smaller “discovery” companies is a smart choice, because these companies are focused. However, market conditions have resulted in an inability for these companies to negotiate successful deals, often even with compounds that are successful in early tests.

Zorilla Research intends to serve these small to mid-size discovery companies: increasing their success rates and facilitating more efficient use of their resources. With Zorilla’s SABLE structural analysis technology, clients can predict problem interactions in early stages of development, and potentially recover compounds that have moved into later phases.

In its entirety, the market for computational tools in drug discovery is estimated to be about $500 million a year in the United States, growing at about $200 million a year annually. Current estimates for the cost of taking a drug to market range from $500 million to $1 billion per drug, with a timeline of almost 15 years.

Dr. Gerald Wyckoff, CEO, is the driving force behind the creation of SABLE, which is protected by a provisional patent. Dr. Wyckoff is joined by Ada Solidar, who has experience in communication with academics as well as clinical and industry personnel.

With project funding from Digital Sandbox KC, Zorilla Research will move its SABLE software to a high-powered, cloud environment and develop a user-friendly interface for interaction with clients.