License agreement extends access to culture-stable pooled hepatocyte cell models with increased longevity for use in DMPK and ADME studies

Kyiv, Ukraine, and Rennes, France — Preci, a biotechnology company advancing patient-derived cell models to bridge the gap between preclinical testing and clinical trials, and Biopredic International, (“Biopredic”), a biotechnology company specializing in the design and manufacture of human and animal in vitro assay systems, today announced a collaboration for the production of pooled suspension human hepatocytes. Under a license agreement, Biopredic will leverage Preci’s expertise and production capacity in sourcing primary hepatocytes, and combine with its own IP and know-how in cell pooling. The partnership will provide DMPK researchers access to large batches of high performing suspended pooled hepatocytes with extended longevity from multiple donors.

Pooled suspension human hepatocytes play a crucial role in assessing drug metabolism and hepatic clearance, providing a more representative understanding of human hepatic metabolism for predicting drug outcomes and assessing their impact on safety and efficacy. Despite this, the limited culture lifespan of pooled hepatocytes hinders long-term studies, potentially reducing metabolic competence with repeated use of the same batch.

Combining capabilities, Preci and Biopredic will provide pooled hepatocytes with an increased lifespan of over 12 hours, offering a single assay-based system to assess a broad range of drugs effectively and consistently. Accommodating both high- and low- clearance compounds, the stable and large-scale production of pooled suspension hepatocytes will increase throughput capacities for DMPK assays and reduce batch-to-batch deviation and assay costs, while the large availability of hepatocytes from multiple donors ensures diversity of CYP and Phase II enzymes. Under the license, Preci’s production capacity will reach 20,000 vials in 2024, greatly increasing global access to hepatocytes pooled and available to customers through Biopredic.

Anton Hanopolskyi, CEO, Preci, said: “At Preci, we believe that increased diversity and availability of representative cell models will revolutionize the drug discovery landscape. This partnership strengthens our position in the human-derived assays market, providing our customers with access to high quality, reproducible assays, and we look forward to continuing to work with Biopredic to advance our translational models for use in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics studies.”

Christophe Chesne, Founder, Biopredic International, commented: “We are proud of Preci’s achievements made under our know-how license agreement. Biopredic now has first line access to many sources of primary hepatocytes suitable for further pooling. With the addition of Preci’s primary hepatocytes, our liver assay system portfolio comprises primary hepatocytes, the iconic HepaRG™ model and the newly launched HepaSH™, making Biopredic’s hepatic offering the most complete and advanced on the market.”

Notes to Editors

Anton Hanopolskyi, CEO, Preci	Christophe Chesne, Founder, Biopredic International

 About Preci https://www.preci.bio

Preci is a pioneer in the field of biotechnology, developing advanced patient-derived cell models to bridge the gap between preclinical testing and clinical trials. Through the application of representative primary cell models using human-derived tissues with low or no phenotypic alteration, Preci is revolutionizing the drug discovery landscape by increasing the diversity and availability of cell models for testing.

Preci’s product portfolio includes a comprehensive range of human hepatocyte models for liver physiology modelling, and patient-derived 3D cell cultures for translational oncology studies including organoids, organ-on-a-chip, and spheroids. Preci has also developed ExViGel, a novel human-based Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM), offering natural cell culture environments for research including heart fibrosis, oncology, and Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) modelling.

About Biopredic International https://wepredic.com/en/

Biopredic International is a French biotechnology company with a 30-year experience in designing and manufacturing human and animal assay systems. We bring solutions for Drug, Cosmetic, and Chemical development and testing with a special focus on liver, skin and blood. We are the worldwide exclusive licensee of HepaRG™ and HepaSH™, the unique hepatic cell model for in vitro liver research. In addition to our products, we provide training sessions in our premises or in yours to transfer our know-how and expertise.