Lonza and CN Bio have entered into a distribution agreement whereby Lonza will supply a selection of hepatic cells to be prequalified by CN Bio for use in its PhysioMimix Single-and Multi-Organ MPS. With prequalified cells, Lonza says, customers can avoid having to trial numerous cell types in order to be assured of finding ones that will grow and behave functionally in 3D culture and fast-track their route to generating data.
The use of physiologically relevant in vitro models plays an important role in driving down attrition rates and boosting the efficiency and success of drug discovery programs. It is increasingly clear that standard 2D cell culture fails to accurately reflect the complex interactions that take place in the living body, while animal models are slow, expensive and don’t always correlate to the same interactions in humans, the companies say. Other models, such as organ-on-a-chip, offer another way forward. This agreement is a step towards bringing more physiologically relevant models to the industry, the companies say.
Maureen Bunger, Senior Product Manager, ADME-Tox Solutions, Lonza Cell and Gene, commented: “Today’s drug discovery success is hugely dependent on performing experiments using the right biological model to best reflect in vivo environments. This new agreement with CN Bio further demonstrates Lonza’s commitment to supporting innovation and to the development of the most advanced cell models for enhanced drug discovery and development success.”
The PhysioMimix Single and Multi-Organ MPS is designed allow researchers to recreate an environment that more accurately represents the human body in the laboratory to generate translationally relevant pre-clinical data. Until now, the widespread adoption of OOC technologies has been hampered by a lack of quality control and performance criteria for consistent use of the devices and reproducibility of results between experimental sites. To address this, the FDA has worked with CN Bio to demonstrate the robustness and reliability of their technology for drug metabolism and safety toxicity applications.
Dr Tomasz Kostrzewski, Director of Biology, CN Bio, commented: “We’re delighted to be working with Lonza, a world-leading cell supplier, to ensure that the prevalidated cells we supply for use with our PhysioMimix Single-and Multi-Organ MPS are of reliably high quality and are well-suited to culture in 3D. Using prequalified cells will save our customers valuable time and resource, further helping to accelerate their drug development journey.”
