Luxcel Biosciences and HD Biosciences enter collaboration agreement for mitochondria toxicity & meta

Luxcel Biosciences, a Cork based Biotechnology Company and HD Biosciences, a leading preclinical drug discovery Contract Research Organization (CRO), announced that they have entered a strategic partnership to co‐market and provide new assay technologies for preclinical drug safety services. Under the agreement, HDB will gain access to Luxcel’s state‐of‐the‐art assays and technologies for assessment of mitochondrial function, toxicity and metabolism.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major contributor to drug‐induced toxicity, post‐market drug withdrawal and black box warnings for hepatic and cardiac toxicity. A major focus of the collaboration is the Respirometric Screening Technology (RST/OCR) assay, originally developed by Luxcel in collaboration with Pfizer. A significant advance of the RST assay, versus the commonly used Glu/Gal assay, is its ability to accurately differentiate specific mitochondrial toxicity from non‐specific toxicity, as well as un-couplers of mitochondrial function from inhibitors. The RST assay is fully validated in high throughput format and in weekly production mode at HDB, Shanghai, providing clients with the best mitochondrial toxicity assay available with cost effective and quick turnaround service.

"We are delighted to team up with Luxcel Biosciences Ltd, a leader in the field of optical sensing technologies." "HDB offers a full range of in vitro toxicology services including safety profiling panels, as well as cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, genotoxicity and cytotoxicity screenings. Luxcel’s growing portfolio of proprietary mitochondria toxicity, bioenergetics & metabolism assays, is highly complementary to our current offerings and provides early and effective identification of mitochondrial liabilities for our client’s drug discovery programs," stated Peiyuan Lin, senior vp of R&D Services of HDB.

"HDB has established and maintained a professional reputation globally with its pre‐clinical service, bringing their clients the most up to date and valuable assays and tools to advance the drug discovery process. This joint effort will leverage the extensive expertise and capabilities from both sides, for the benefit of global as well as China‐based pharmaceutical and biotech companies," said Ian Hayes, commercial director for Luxcel.