Entelos and Organon extend research agreement
Entelos, a leading US life sciences company building predictive computer models of human physiology and 'virtual patients' for drug discovery and development, and Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel have extended their ongoing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) collaboration for a further two years. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Entelos, a leading US life sciences company building predictive computer models of human physiology and 'virtual patients' for drug discovery and development, and Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel have extended their ongoing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) collaboration for a further two years. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Organon and Entelos have collaborated since 2001 to develop the Entelos Rheumatoid Arthritis PhysioLab platform, a large-scale, mathematical model that captures the overall disease process and allows the simulation of both current therapies and drugs in development. The platform dynamically integrates the tissue structure, cellular functions, and biochemical interactions necessary to reproduce synovial hyperplasia, cartilage degradation, angiogenesis, and bone erosion.
More than 700 biological functions or pathways are included in the platform, enabling researchers to predict and evaluate clinical outcomes in response to therapeutic interventions and novel approaches in virtual patients spanning the wide range of real patients in the clinic.
Enhancements within the RA PhysioLab platform now include a representation of B cells, critical contributors to disease progression, and expanded representations of bone and serum. The bone compartment allows researchers to explore the effects of therapeutic interventions at earlier time points than current radiographic approaches, and broadens the ability of researchers to investigate combination therapies and identify biomarkers of therapeutic efficacy. The expanded serum compartment allows researchers to investigate how soluble factors in blood can change in response to therapies, and provides additional candidate biomarkers.
'The collaboration with Entelos has generated candidate targets and biomarkers which will be pursued under the extension of our collaboration,' said David Nicholson, executive vice president, research & development at Organon. 'We continue to seek partnerships that move us to the forefront of RA research and development and look forward to the future benefits of Entelos' in silico approach in target and biomarker validation.'
