Cellular Dynamics International and VivoMedica Launch the CARDIOTOX Consortium to Validate a Human Cardiac Model for Preclinical Cardiotoxici...(arrhythmogenic potential the end result ...),Health

"Adverse cardiac effects have resulted in the withdrawal or blackbox warnings of multiple high profile drugs in recent years. Even now it's estimated that 25-40% of all drugs in pre-clinical testing show some adverse drug-induced cardiotoxicity," said Julian Demmon, CEO of VivoMedica. "The challenge for the industry is how to reliably predict clinical cardiotoxicity earlier in the pipeline and thus to target drug development funding more effectively. We believe that iCell Cardiomyocytes in the DrugPrint system will help the pharmaceutical industry overcome this challenge."

"Maintaining a normal cardiac rhythm requires the complex coordination of dozens of proteins. Disruption of this interplay, even for a few minutes, can have severe consequences and even death," said Craig T. January, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.C., director and founder of CDI. "Incorporating human cells into toxicology testing is an important goal in the pharmaceutical industry, as human-based models are more likely to recapitulate relevant in vivo biology."

"Mimicking drug toxicity that would manifest itself in clinical trials is a key component of improving the efficiency of drug development," said Chris Kendrick-Parker, chief commercialization officer of CDI. "We have been able to reliably and consistently generate large numbers of human cardiomyocytes for use in pharmaceutical drug development using our iPS cell technologies. Incorporating iCell Cardiomyocytes into VivoMedica's DrugPrint platform will enable our customers to access a reliable human cardiomyocyte cell model in a highly effective testing system."

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