Looking to raise its profile with U.S. drug developers, Xceleron is set to open its new, $7.5 million lab in Germantown, MD later today. Xceleron specializes in microdosing: taking minute quantities of an experimental therapy and trying them in a small group of humans before deciding whether to take them into full-scale clinical development.

The company has made significant headway in Europe, convincing a range of developers there that microdosing offers a cost-effective way to determine which compounds should advance into expensive trials.

But as the Washington Post notes, they've had a harder time making their case in the U.S. The FDA's David Jacobson-Kram observes that most drug makers are skeptical that the technology works as billed. But with their new lab up and running not too far from FDA headquarters, they'll have a chance to start making their case on a more frequent basis.

- read the story [1] in the Washington Post

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