Lhasa Limited launches Acrostic 2.0: Supporting confident, structured read-across support for nitrosamine and systemic toxicity assessments

Acrostic 2.0 introduces enhancements to support scientists in deriving and justifying compound-specific safety decisions regarding nitrosamines and systemic toxicity assessments.

Regulatory expectations continue to evolve. From nitrosamine risk assessments to the introduction of ICH Q3E for extractables and leachables (E&L), toxicologists need to justify safety decisions across a growing number of compounds, often without direct toxicity data.

Acrostic 2.0 focuses on strengthening how those decisions are supported in practice.

Move from searching for data to applying scientific judgement

Acrostic 2.0 supports deriving acceptable intake (AI) values and compound-specific safety limits quickly by bringing together relevant evidence into a structured read-across workflow.

This enables scientists to identify and evaluate relevant analogues, understand the strength of supporting evidence, and apply expert judgement within a transparent, reproducible framework.

Using Acrostic 2.0, scientists can:

• Derive nitrosamine acceptable intake (AI) values using Lhasa’s published TD₅₀ methodology
• Identify relevant studies to determine a Point of Departure (PoD) for systemic toxicity and E&L assessments
• Document rationale, exclusions, uncertainty considerations, and supporting evidence within a structured workflow

Each stage of the assessment is documented to support transparent, regulator-aligned justification.

Want to understand how? Hear more from the team behind Acrostic:

 

Supporting reproducible, defensible assessments

Acrostic 2.0 introduces enhancements strengthening how analogue relevance is identified and justified across both nitrosamine and systemic toxicity workflows:

• • • • • Metabolic similarity, powered by Meteor

        Meteor integration enables comparison of predicted metabolic fate between compounds. This supports analogue evaluation where toxicity may be driven by metabolites rather than the parent compound.

        • Multi-dimensional similarity scoring

        Analogue relevance is assessed across structural, mechanistic, metabolic, and physicochemical factors, supporting more informed read-across decisions beyond structural fingerprint matching alone.

        • Integrated evidence ecosystem 
      • Acrostic connects  Derek Nexus, Vitic and LCDB Plus with datasets including ToxValDB, ECHA and Munro, to bring curated, reliability-graded evidence into a single searchable workflow to help scientists identify relevant studies efficiently while reducing the manual effort associated with cross-referencing multiple tools and data sources. 
        • Improved interpretability
      • Similarity grading improves visibility of analogue relevance, while structured expert review workflows support transparent evaluation, documentation, and cross-functional collaboration.

Acrostic supports scalable scientific workflows

Manual read-across workflows often require significant time for evidence gathering, comparison, and documentation, making it difficult for teams to efficiently manage increasing assessment volumes.

Acrostic 2.0 supports more scalable assessment workflows through:

1. Structured analogue identification and ranking
2. Reliability-graded evidence evaluation
3. Integrated documentation and traceability
4. Transparent expert review workflows

This enables teams to reproduce assessments across users, at any time, supporting defensible submissions and reducing the need to reconstruct decisions during regulatory review.

Consult Lhasa scientists have demonstrated up to 90% time savings compared with fully manual read-across workflows.

Supporting evolving regulatory requirements

Acrostic 2.0 supports scientists in moving from data gathering to scientific decision-making, enabling confident, scientifically justified safety assessments across nitrosamine and systemic toxicity workflows.

With increasing expectations for traceability, reproducibility, and scientific justification, Acrostic 2.0 provides a practical framework for supporting regulatory-aligned read-across across pharmaceutical, biotech, generics, and medical device workflows.

For more information or to book a personalised demonstration of Acrostic 2.0, book a demonstration today.