HemoShear is teaming up with Swedish infectious disease-focused pharmaceutical firm Medivir in a collaboration that will apply HemoShear's platform to an undisclosed area of interest.
During the collaboration's first phase, HemoShear will characterize biological mechanisms and the effects of drug candidates on liver tissue using its human liver system, which the firm says can accurately replicate in vivo physiological conditions to help assess drug candidates and targets as well as pharmacological responses.
“Meaningful improvements in the safety and efficacy of drug candidates are possible when they are evaluated and designed using systems that more closely replicate human physiology,” said HemoShear's co-founder an CSO Brett Blackman in a statement. “Our collaboration with Medivir will allow them to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of action underlying compounds that target the liver.”
HemoShear added that this collaboration will also contribute to a set of data on drug exposure the company is currently putting together as part of an ongoing program funded by the NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that aims to demonstrate that using more human-relevant systems can better predict how safe new drug candidates are well before the clinical stages of drug development.
