Kaptis

Kaptis is a novel in silico software solution developed by Lhasa Limited, designed to support safety assessors in making more comprehensive and informed decisions during the drug discovery phase. Given that toxicology is widely recognised as the biggest driver of compound attrition in drug development — and that bringing a single drug candidate to market can take 10–15 years and cost an estimated US$2.6 billion — Kaptis helps organisations identify toxicological liabilities early, enabling compounds to fail fast and cheaply rather than at costly late stages.

Kaptis profiles compounds in relation to the risk of human adverse events by organising knowledge through adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). This integrated approach to testing and assessment (IATA) allows safety teams to combine existing knowledge with their own assay data in a meaningful, structured framework, supporting faster and more cost-effective human safety assessment decisions.

Key Capabilities of Kaptis

• AOP knowledge framework: Kaptis is built around an AOP knowledge framework that has been created, curated, and peer reviewed by expert Lhasa scientists, enabling users to explore relevant knowledge, assay data, and predictions in a structured way.
• Understanding toxicological liabilities: By combining existing knowledge and proprietary assay data through AOPs, Kaptis helps users quickly understand the toxicological liabilities of their lead compounds using an IATA approach.
• Optimising early testing strategy: Kaptis helps answer the question of what to do next — specifically, which assay to run and which adverse outcome (AO) to prioritise — resulting in more informed, faster, and more cost-effective safety assessment decisions.

What Is an Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP)?

• An AOP documents causal relationships between biological processes that lead to adverse outcomes or toxicity.
• AOPs begin with a molecular initiating event (MIE) and progress through additional key events (KEs) to reach an adverse outcome (AO).
• Sequential key events are connected through key event relationships (KERs), and each KE is measurable and can be linked to a relevant assay.
• This framework enables data to be contextualised and organised intuitively, supporting decisions in chemical safety assessments.

Complementary Tool: Derek Nexus

• Compound library triage: Derek Nexus identifies toxicophores highlighting possible hazards quickly through expert-curated structure-activity relationships (SARs) in virtual screens.
• Expert-curated scientific knowledge: The knowledge base within Derek Nexus is derived from both public and proprietary member data sources and is continuously updated as new data becomes available.
• Confident assessments: Transparent predictions, supporting evidence, and scientific comments describing mechanisms of action allow users to build more confident toxicity assessments and follow up on key supporting references.

Regulatory and Scientific Support

• Using Kaptis and Derek Nexus during the drug discovery phase can enhance regulatory submissions by providing more comprehensive safety assessments.
• Lhasa Limited actively publishes research related to safety profiling, including work on N-nitrosamine risk assessment, AOP-based species selection for DART assessments, and in silico models for carcinogenicity assessment.

Kaptis and Derek Nexus are in silico software solutions offered by Lhasa Limited, a member-based organisation committed to accelerating the drug development process through expert-driven predictive toxicology tools. Together, these platforms support safety assessors in generating enhanced safety profiles and making complex decisions with greater confidence throughout early drug discovery.