Industry News: CN Bio to provide drug metabolism and safety toxicity testing services

CN Bio has announced the commercial launch of its Drug Metabolism and Safety Toxicity Testing Services. Liver toxicity is a principal safety concern during drug discovery and development, with the potential to terminate expensive clinical trials already underway. The new services will incorporate the Company’s advanced Liver-on-Chip™ technologies with expertise in the field to enable researchers to generate predictive and human-relevant data, improving the translatability from discovery to clinic, and accelerating new drugs to market.

Based on the success of CN Bio’s Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Fee-For-Service offerings, the new toxicity testing services also provide researchers with additional support and bandwidth during the COVID-19 pandemic, when laboratories are not at full capacity. Similarly to the NAFLD/NASH Fee-For-Service, all studies use the Company’s PhysioMimix™ Organ-on-Chip system and in vitro 3D Liver-on-Chip™ model; replicating the physiological and mechanical microenvironment of the liver to fast-track lead targets and generate actionable data in weeks that is reproducible, and cost-effective versus animal studies.

CN Bio’s extended portfolio of services offers solutions to many existing workflow challenges including: drug metabolism testing, to study the human metabolism of lead candidates, identify metabolites and correlation with cell health – even for low clearance compounds, and safety toxicity testing, to provide in-depth analysis of acute or chronic drug-induced liver injury using a wide range of endpoints to determine causality and mechanism of toxicity. The Company also provides complimentary service capabilities to support industry and biotechnology organisations that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr David Hughes, CEO, CN Bio, said: “One in ten drugs successfully reach clinical trials, with safety concerns being the principal cause for subsequent failure. Through our enhanced drug metabolism and safety toxicity testing services, we enable scientists to take a step beyond what is currently possible with 2D cell culture and animal studies to improve their chances of clinical success. Our technologies are on the cutting-edge of research to simulate human biological conditions, in vitro, and we are confident in our ability to support customers in developing tomorrow’s medicines, especially at this challenging time.”

Want more of the latest science news straight to your inbox? Become a SelectScience member for free today>>