Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth has announced that two of its researchers have been recognized for their innovation in drug discovery science by the Research & Development Council of New Jersey at its Annual Thomas Alva Edison Patent Awards ceremony.

The Wyeth researchers, Li Di, Ph.D., principal research scientist II, and Edward H. Kerns, M.S., associate director, received the 2007 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award in the category of Enabling Technologies for the development of a laboratory test to help speed the development of new and effective treatments for central nervous system (CNS) diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

The technique developed by Dr. Di and Mr. Kerns, Parallel Artificial Membrane Permeability Assay for Blood-Brain Barrier, is an effective assay that measures a drug candidate's ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier protects sensitive brain tissue by blocking many drugs from crossing through, thus complicating the development of drugs designed to treat CNS disorders. In discovering new CNS drug candidates, it is necessary to determine if the compound is able to pass the blood-brain barrier, and, for non-CNS diseases, it is important to assess whether the compound might pass through the blood-brain barrier and cause a side effect related to the central nervous system.

"At Wyeth, we have a strong focus in neuroscience research, and this important development is helping to rapidly select and improve drug candidates in disease areas that traditionally have had very low treatment success rates," says Robert R. Ruffolo, Jr., Ph.D., President, Wyeth research, and senior vice president, Wyeth.