Collaboration will involve sophisticated screening for cardiac-based drug discovery
HeartBeat.bio – a company developing cardiac organoids for drug discovery – and Molecular Devices, a provider of life science solutions, have entered into a co-development agreement.
With cardiovascular diseases the leading cause of death worldwide – claiming 34 lives every minute – and cardiotoxicity a major cause of drug withdrawals, the partnership will provide automated solutions to better model disease physiology, discover novel drug target and test cardiac toxicity.
It will incorporate 3D cell cultures that more accurately represent human biology as compared to traditional animal models. Meanwhile, the commercialised offering will enable researchers to reliably scale production of cardioids, advance cardiac drug discovery and boost compatibility with Molecular Devices’ existing solutions.
The Molecular Devices platform built around HeartBeat.bio’s Cardioid technology is expected to improve preclinical research, leading to higher clinical trial success rates along with reduced costs and time for compound development.
“The combination of HeartBeat.bio’s proprietary Cardioid technology and Molecular Devices’ automated 3D cell culture and image analysis solutions, defines a powerful and compelling partnership. Together, we are committed to develop and commercialise the world’s first integrated, end-to-end high-throughput human cardiac organoid screening platform,” said Michael Krebs, chief executive officer of HeartBeat.bio.
“The collaboration establishes the foundation for HeartBeat.bio’s strategy to apply this unique 3D biology platform for cardiac drug development partnerships with pharma and proprietary discovery programmes in heart failure.”
“By collaborating with HeartBeat.bio, we’ll equip more researchers with the physiologically-relevant cell models, automated bioimaging technology, and reproducible workflows needed to drive development of novel heart disease treatments and reduce cardiovascular safety risk of drugs entering clinical trials,” concluded Susan Murphy, president of Molecular Devices.
She added: “Our ultimate goal is to help unleash the full potential of organoid research so that scientists are empowered to bring safer and more effective therapeutics to patients faster.”
With a leading pharmaceutical company already identified to help validate the offering for cardiac drug safety, the companies are open to additional tests and assessments regarding the predictive value of the platform as compared to other drug development methods.
