D&B ChemTox helps assure drug safety with ToxPlanet 

With decades of pharmaceutical toxicology experience, Doug Ball and Bill Beierschmitt, founders of D&B ChemTox have become revered sources of knowledge in drug impurity risk assessments. A normal part of the drug development process, impurity risk assessments are required by major authorities in order to ensure drug safety, and they must be both incredibly thorough and quick in their turn-around. In order to meet these seemingly contradictory objectives, D&B ChemTox leverages ToxPlanet to: 

• Thoroughly research chemicals through ToxPlanet’s centralized repository 
• Save time—and money—with developing assessments 
• Manage customer concerns in real-time 

Read on to learn more about D&B ChemTox’s experience with ToxPlanet. 

1. How can ToxPlanet make chemical research for assessments easier?

“Basically, it’s all there at a click of the button. REACH dossiers, ATSDRs, ECHA requirements, et cetera. We’ve each been using ToxPlanet for about 10 years, even before we started D&B ChemTox, and it really is the best tool available to get chemical data expeditiously. The very layout of ToxPlanet is extremely beneficial in that when a toxicologist does research on a chemical, we really want to know its toxicological potential as well as any regulatory perception, and ToxPlanet really is the best that there is. It’s easy to search, whether that’s through CASRN or chemical name, and it’s accessible, with all of the help and support and courses provided to be able to leverage the tool to its fullest.”—Bill  

“By having all of the information centralized with ToxPlanet, it makes it really straightforward to see if there are consistent or contradictory opinions among different scientific authorities or regulatory perceptions on a chemical, which is incredibly important in being able to form our own risk assessments. We’ve had access to the full suite of ToxPlanet modules in the past, and now, we also really like being able to utilize the specific modules that we need for our specific niche to keep things as clear and easy to use as possible.”—Doug  

2. What value does ToxPlanet bring to your business?

“Customer service is very important, and the team behind ToxPlanet is great. We did run into a glitch with a REACH dossier one time. Because REACH is constantly updating their dossiers, that can result in broken links in their materials. And it was actually ToxPlanet support that went out and found the right data for us. They respond quickly and are very communicative, which is important to us, because very often we have very tight timelines, sometimes only a few days, to deliver an answer.”—Bill 

“It could take weeks to find all the information ToxPlanet supplies on the internet, but they present it there in one nice data repository—that’s a huge savings of time which we don’t often have a lot of. Additionally, the price point that ToxPlanet is offered at is compelling—especially with the amount of information that it holds and how easy it is to navigate compared to competitors.”—Doug 

3. ToxPlanet is focused on chemical data…how can it possibly help you with client expectation management?

“We’ve actually had situations where we’ve been on the phone with a client, and they’re feeling really nervous and under pressure about a chemical, and we’re able to quickly look at the data ToxPlanet has right there and assure them that at a glance we think the assessment will be favorable.”—Doug 

“Having all the chemical eggs in one basket, if you will, is really quite helpful. Though we do need a little time to sift through them all to do a full assessment, we are able to look at a few well-known ‘eggs’ like human carcinogenicity, for example, and be able to set expectations quickly with our clients, which is invaluable for trust and relationship-building.”—Bill