Luxcel Biosciences And HD Biosciences Co., Ltd Enter Collaboration Agreement For Mitochondria Toxicity & Metabolism Assays For Preclinical Drug Safety Evaluation

CORK, Ireland and SHANGHAI, March 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Luxcel Biosciences Ltd (Luxcel), a Cork based Biotechnology Company and HD Biosciences Co., Ltd. (HDB), a leading preclinical drug discovery Contract Research Organization (CRO), announced today that they have entered a strategic partnership to comarket and provide new assay technologies for preclinical drug safety services. Under the agreement, HDB will gain access to Luxcel's stateoftheart assays and technologies for assessment of mitochondrial function, toxicity and metabolism.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major contributor to druginduced toxicity, postmarket drug withdrawal and black box warnings for hepatic and cardiac toxicity. A major focus of the collaboration is the Respirometric Screening Technology (RST/OCR) assay, originally developed by Luxcel in collaboration with Pfizer Inc. (Ref: Will, Y et al (2006) Nature Protocols). A significant advance of the RST assay, versus the commonly used Glu/Gal assay, is its ability to accurately differentiate specific mitochondrial toxicity from nonspecific toxicity, as well as un-couplers of mitochondrial function from inhibitors. The RST assay is fully validated in high throughput format and in weekly production mode at HDB, Shanghai, providing clients with the best mitochondrial toxicity assay available with cost effective and quick turnaround service.

"We are delighted to team up with Luxcel Biosciences Ltd, a leader in the field of optical sensing technologies." "HDB offers a full range of in vitro toxicology services including safety profiling panels (Safety Assess), as well as cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, genotoxicity and cytotoxicity screenings. Luxcel's growing portfolio of proprietary mitochondria toxicity, bioenergetics & metabolism assays, is highly complementary to our current offerings and provides early and effective identification of mitochondrial liabilities for our client's drug discovery programs," stated Dr. Peiyuan Lin, Senior VP of R&D Services of HDB.

"HDB has established and maintained a professional reputation globally with its preclinical service, bringing their clients the most up to date and valuable assays and tools to advance the drug discovery process. This joint effort will leverage the extensive expertise and capabilities from both sides, for the benefit of global as well as Chinabased pharmaceutical and biotech companies," said Dr. Ian Hayes, Commercial Director for Luxcel.

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About Luxcel Biosciences Ltd

Luxcel Biosciences was founded in 2002 in Co. Cork, Ireland, and is a multi-award winning provider of cost effective and easy to use fluorescence-based in vitro cell test kits, targeting cell metabolism, bioenergetics and drug toxicity applications.  Customers range from University research scientists, to global Pharmaceutical Companies and Contract Research Organisations.  Pfizer Inc., one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, is a key collaborator in the field of drug safety and mitochondrial toxicity screening. Several joint research publications in high impact journals have resulted from this successful collaboration.

www.luxcel.com

About HD Biosciences

HD Biosciences Co., Ltd. is a biologyfocused preclinical drug discovery contract research organization (CRO) with headquarter in Shanghai, and operation facilities in Beijing and San Diego, USA. The company offers comprehensive research and development services to global pharmaceutical and biotech industries around target validation, platebased pharmacology, hit identification & lead discovery, therapeutic antibody discovery, in vivo pharmacology, and other related areas. The company currently collaborates with eight (8) of the ten (10) largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and has established strategic partnerships with impacts to their portfolios. The strong scientific expertise, high quality of the services, consistency in deliveries, and constantly meeting or exceeding expectations, have helped the company to earn an excellent reputation in the industry. The in vitro pharmacology R&D and other core competencies of the company are widely recognized as one of the best among preclinical CROs.

About RST/OCA Assay

Please visit: http://www.hdbiosciences.com/EngRST.html

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SOURCE Luxcel Biosciences Ltd

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