Development of new cell-based in vitro models for ADME/Toxicity screening, based on human adult progenitor/stem cells
Characterization of a new drug candidate during preclinical evaluation includes, in addition to potency and safety an assessment of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics. Drug metabolism studies require identification ofthe products of drug candidate metabolism, as well as potential drugdrug interaction or drug-induced cell toxicity. This key information is essential to the pharmaceutical industry in their decision to bring a lead compound in clinical phase development. However, a large proportion (40%) of drug candidates fail during clinical development due to inadequate ADME/Tox evaluation. Thus, there is a strong need for innovative and predictive in vitro cell-based assays for preclinical development of new chemical entities (NCE). This project is therefore designed to develop such a model based on the use of hepatocyte-derived progenitor and stem cells.
A bilateral collaboration between Promethera Biosciences and EMD Millipore Corporation (Massachusetts), born from a BioWin initiative, will associate a very innovative microfluidic structure and the cell line elaborated during the Valostem project to generate an integrated, 3-dimensional ADME/Tox tool.
Consortium
Companies: Promethera BioSciences, UCB
Universities: UCLouvain, UNamur