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Aim: Although regulatory guidances require human metabolism information of drug candidates early in the development process, the human mass balance study (or hADME study), is performed relatively late. hADME studies typically involve the administration of a 14 C-radiolabelled drug where biological samples are measured by conventional scintillation counting analysis. Another approach is the administration of therapeutic doses containing a 14 C-microtracer followed by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis, enabling hADME studies completion much earlier. Consequently, there is an opportunity to change the current drug development paradigm., Materials & Methods: To evaluate the applicability of the MICADAS-cAMS method, we successfully performed: the validation of MICADAS-cAMS for radioactivity quantification in biomatrices and, a rat ADME study, where the conventional methodology was assessed against a microtracer MICADAS-cAMS approach., Results & Discussion: Combustion AMS (cAMS) technology is applicable to microtracer studies. A favorable opinion from EMA to complete the hADME in a Phase I setting was received, opening the possibilities to change drug development.

Aim: Drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) determination is critical for development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). This work presents a middle-up LC-MS approach for DAR analysis using prelabeled capture beads and in-house fabricated slit-plates. Methodology & Results: Cysteine, engineered cysteine and disulfide-linked ADCs, each with two different linker payloads, were immunocaptured and digested to scFc and F(ab') 2 fragments. At this point, disulfide-linked ADCs were analyzed while cysteine and engineered cysteine ADCs were reduced to LC and Fd' fragments for analysis. Results were precise, accurate and sensitive, allowing DAR to be determined out to 21 days., Conclusion: This work describes a method that is easily implemented, amenable to high-throughput analysis and does not require specialized reagents or equipment.