ITI research programme recognised with important publication
Monday 4.8.08
Dundee, Scotland, ITI Life Sciences, CXR Biosciences and TaconicArtemis GmbH are pleased to announce research into new technology that will enable the rapid advancement of safer drug candidates into human trials, has been published in the prestigious Journal of Clinical Investigation (Ref. 1). The research is part of an ongoing and extensive ITI programme designed to generate a wide range of mouse models in which murine proteins, important for drug metabolism and toxicity are replaced in vivo by their human counterparts. The programme is being conducted by CXR Biosciences (Dundee, Scotland) and TaconicArtemis (Cologne, Germany, a subsidiary of Taconic Farms, Inc., Hudson, New York) and is funded by ITI Life Sciences. The paper by Scheer et al., describes the generation and evaluation of transgenic (genetically engineered) mice containing human versions of two important genes (PXR and CAR), which code for proteins (receptors) that play a crucial role in the detection and breakdown of foreign compounds in the body. Increasingly, companies in the pharmaceutical industry are recognising that such transgenic models can predict, earlier and more accurately, the effects that drug compounds and their metabolites will have in humans before the start of human clinical trials. The research provides further evidence that such models can have a unique application in drug discovery and development. The market in which these technologies will compete is estimated at more than US$3 billion and significant interest has already been seen from major pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the United States. This programme, which started in 2005 with funding of £5.5 million, has been a major success so far: 30 novel transgenic mouse lines, including the world’s first quadruple humanised transgenic mouse, have been created by the programme; significant intellectual property has been generated, including 5 patents applications; and importantly, in 2006, CXR Biosciences and TaconicArtemis obtained a commercial licence to the first of these lines from ITI Scotland, which allows them to co-commercialise products and services developed using these new technologies. As a result, the ITI Programme was extended in February 2008 with a further £2 million to enable TaconicArtemis and CXR Biosciences to complete the development of additional mouse models and file additional patents.
Eleanor Mitchell, Managing Director of ITI Life Sciences, said: “The research being conducted by CXR Biosciences and TaconicArtemis in this ITI programme is a major step forward in our understanding of the many elements and systems responsible for metabolising drugs in our bodies. The driving ambition of this programme is to create valuable models that will accurately predict what is likely to happen to drug candidates before they are tested in humans in clinical trials. This will enable the screening out of potentially toxic compounds and the rapid advancement of safer drug candidates into clinical trials. We are delighted with the progress this programme is making and this publication is a real validation of the quality of work being undertaken by the teams.”
Tom Shepherd, Chief Executive Officer of CXR Biosciences, said, “This research is creating an integrated platform of humanised models unparalleled in its breadth and the recognition afforded by this publication will assist greatly in communicating the science behind this platform. Our joint objective is to provide a broad, inclusive platform of humanised mouse models, all on the same genetic background, which can resolve the key difficulties faced in drug development and safety evaluation due to species differences.”
Paul Rounding, Managing Director of TaconicArtemis GmbH, said, “We have seen a major amount of progress during the last couple of years in the development and validation of these novel humanised mouse models for drug discovery purposes. This paper begins to show the breadth of the programme and to indicate how these models can be used to answer biological problems in drug discovery and basic research. We are already in discussions with our partners about the best way to bring these models to them and we anticipate making significant progress in this area during the next 12 months.” References A novel panel of mouse models to evaluate the role of human pregnane X receptor and constitutive androstane receptor in drug response. Scheer, N., Ross, J., Rode, A., Zevnik, B., Niehaves, S., Faust, N. and Wolf, C.R. (2008) J. Clin. Invest. To appear in print copy on 2nd September / http://content.jci.org/articles/view/35483
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About ITI Life Sciences ITI Life Sciences is a division of ITI Scotland Ltd, a publicly funded organisation focused on driving sustainable economic growth in Scotland through ownership of commercially targeted R&D programmes delivering world-class intellectual assets. ITI Scotland is focused on three market areas: energy, life sciences, and digital media and communications technology. ITI Life Sciences (Dundee, Scotland) aims to leverage Scotland’s research excellence in life sciences to generate new technologies that address future global market opportunities.This is achieved by identifying and commissioning early stage R&D programmes based on assessing future market needs and developing the required technology assets. The organisation also identifies appropriate commercial partners to exploit these assets globally.To date, ITI Life Sciences has initiated R&D programmes in commercially attractive areas such as point of care diagnostics, stem cell technologies, predictive drug screening and text mining.
Further information can be found at www.itilifesciences.com
About CXR Biosciences CXR Biosciences Ltd. applies innovative approaches to transform the drug development and safety assessment process. As well as introducing new technology platforms to the marketplace, CXR helps customers to take their candidate compounds through development efficiently, or to resolve problems that have been encountered during development, through the provision of customised research solutions.
The company has business relationships with over sixty customers and collaborators, including pharmaceutical companies, chemical companies, biotechnology companies, leading universities and research institutions. CXR Biosciences Ltd. is located in Dundee, Scotland. More information can be found at www.cxrbiosciences.com
About TaconicArtemis TaconicArtemis offers custom made genetically engineered mice as in vivo genetic model systems for use at various stages of the drug discovery process or in academic research. Mouse models produced by the ArteMice™ platform are being used to provide highly relevant in vivo data for gene target function, compound efficacy and on/off target-related side effects; these data contribute in a significant way to reducing attrition in drug research. TaconicArtemis customers include most of the leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and many academic institutions in Europe, the United States and Japan. TaconicArtemis is a German-based subsidiary of Taconic. www.taconic.com/artemis
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