To mark its 10th anniversary, Drug Discovery & Development magazine invited industry vendors to reflect on the history and made predictions about future of the industry. Featured here are verbatim comments from this company.
Celsis In Vitro Technologies (a division of Celsis International plc)
Headquarters
Chicago, Ill.
Location(s)
Baltimore, Md. and Belgium
Years in Drug Research
18 Years
Spokesperson
Ji Young Lee, Ph.D. and Timothy A. Moeller, Scientific Advisors
Web site
About the company
Celsis In Vitro Technologies (Celsis IVT) employs proprietary expertise in hepatocyte (liver cell) technology to supply in vitro testing products and services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to screen drug compounds for liver toxicity early in the drug discovery process, reducing the time and cost of further development or trial. Celsis IVT is a division of Celsis International plc, a world leading provider of innovative life science products and laboratory services to the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and consumer products industries through its three business areas specializing in rapid microbial detection systems, analytical laboratory services and in vitro ADME-Tox products and services.
The company’s line of business as it was 10 years ago. Changes in life science/drug research that influenced business.
Drug discovery and development has changed quite a bit in the past decade. And as technology changes rapidly, Celsis IVT has evolved as well. Over the past decade, the prediction of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) from in vitro studies has become a rapidly expanding and increasingly reliable area of research.
HPLC, for example, has given way to LC/MS for more sensitive and accurate measurements. Also, until recently, inhibition and clearance testing of new chemical entities (NCEs) were studied with a mixed pool of microsomes. Today, Celsis IVT has perfected the “purpose-pooling” of InVitroCYP human liver microsomes (HLMs) into distinct classes of high and moderate cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity, delivering more sensitive metabolism data for researchers. This concept of purpose-pooling--here today and available from Celsis in both microsomes and hepatocytes--is evidence of the trend to develop increasingly specific medications.
Scientific challenges in the next 10 years.
As researchers drill down to create specific genetically based drugs, there will be a greater need to test combinations of different compounds to find the right mix for an individual. This will require enormous processing power and access to significant reserves of tissue. Celsis continues to prepare for the increasing demand, and we currently house the world’s largest inventory of cryopreserved products for ADME-Tox research.
Factor(s) that drove the development of technologies during the last 10 years and greatest area of growths.
Celsis IVT has experienced great growth as the result of our pioneering work cryopreserving human- and animal-derived tissue products for research. Researchers have embraced the many benefits of cryopreservation. It makes it possible for scientists at different locations to study the same compounds using the same donor tissue. There is great advantage, too, being able to repeat a study in a month, six months or a few years from now. And of course not having to always work weekends: with cryopreserved products, researchers can schedule an induction study, for example, for a Monday morning and be done on Friday. It’s not possible to schedule a study when you have to use fresh tissue, and if you need multiple donors, it can take a lot longer to get the results.
Bold Prediction: Where will drug research technology be in 10 years?
With a multi-class microsome system, researchers have new, better tools to meet specific ADME requirements. Ten years from now, purpose-pooling will be further refined by the ability to customize models on demand to test in silico and in vitro for CYP activity and polymorphisms, further tailoring drug development and dosing for individuals.
