PsychoGenics Expands its In Vivo Capabilities with the Addition of Preclinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technology Services in Partnership with Ekam Imaging

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. & BOSTON -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- PsychoGenics Inc. and Ekam Imaging, Inc., today announced the establishment of an alliance to provide Ekam’s specialized imaging services in awake animals to complement PsychoGenics’ testing capabilities and drug discovery services.

Ekam is the only service organization performing multimodal imaging, including functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and pharmacological MRI (phMRI) on conscious animals. Ekam’s cutting edge imaging techniques, including proprietary three dimensional brain atlases, hardware and analytical tools, complement and broaden PsychoGenics’ extensive in vivo and ex vivo capabilities, including its proprietary high throughput behavioral capabilities, and its electrophysiology and molecular pharmacological technologies, to evaluate multiple pharmacodynamic endpoints in its extensive collection of animal models. Together PsychoGenics and Ekam provide critical and translatable tools to better predict new drug candidates success in humans.

“The need to perform imaging under anesthesia has produced a significant gap in our understanding of the neuropathological basis of CNS and other diseases. Together with PsychoGenics, we can assess the behavioral effects of treatments and examine the patterns of brain activity in the same awake animals thereby providing mechanistic insights and translational tools,” said Mark Nedelman, CEO of Ekam.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr. Emer Leahy, President and CEO of PsychoGenics said, “We are delighted to enter into this alliance with Ekam, an innovative leader in preclinical multimodal imaging. By bringing together the CNS and PNS drug discovery platforms of Ekam and PsychoGenics, our clients and partners will benefit through an increased probability of success and more informed decision making in their drug discovery efforts with the goal of delivering pre-clinical candidates in the most time and cost efficient manner.”

About PsychoGenics

PsychoGenics is a preclinical CRO that provides a full complement of partnered drug discovery capabilities with a focus on psychiatric, cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, pain, inflammation, spinal cord and traumatic brain injury. PsychoGenics transforms drug discovery by combining expertise in behavioral neurobiology with the power of bioinformatics in conjunction with proprietary, high-throughput behavioral testing platforms that rapidly screen compound libraries for CNS activity. PsychoGenics works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and not-for-profit research foundations to help discover treatments for major neurological and psychiatric disorders. For more information about PsychoGenics please visit www.psychogenics.com.

About Ekam

Ekam Imaging is a preclinical CRO specializing in imaging studies on awake animals providing a unique approach to evaluating the circuitry that underlies the behavioral and/or therapeutic effects of a drug. Ekam’s primary focus is on central nervous system diseases where the imaging of awake, un-anesthetized animals is critical to successful translation of preclinical data to the clinic. For more information about Ekam please visit www.ekamimaging.com.