Charles River announces expansion of in vitro oncology services

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) announced its partnership with InSphero AG, a leading supplier of 3D solutions for in vitro drug discovery and development.

Through this partnership, Charles River will license its collection of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors to InSphero. Additionally, Charles River will leverage InSphero’s proprietary 3D cell culture technology to further extend and complement its pre-clinical services, using in vitro 3D InSight^™ Tumor Microtissues derived from its existing PDX collection.

“Over the past year, we have seen an increased demand from our oncology clients for enhanced speed and efficiency in early drug discovery,” said Birgit Girshick, Corporate Senior Vice President, Global Discovery Services at Charles River. “In vitro discovery platforms offer a strong solution, and our partnership with InSphero significantly bolsters our capabilities in this field.”

In vitro 3D solutions enable the evaluation of a compound’s potency compared to standard-of-care drugs. This in vitro testing provides for identification of the most promising drug candidates, tumor histotypes and molecular subtypes. Data collected in these tests can then be used to select PDX models for subsequent in vivo efficacy tests. The data can also be used to run systematic combination therapy studies over a range of concentrations and to correlate the tumor response with molecular data.

“Licensing Charles River’s robust library of PDX tumor models significantly expands our current disease model portfolio in diabetes and liver fibrosis,” said Jan Lichtenberg, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at InSphero. “The combination of their extensive background in PDX tumors, combined with our proprietary and industry-validated 3D cell culture technology, will help pave the way for future breakthroughs. Expanding our 3D InSight^™ Discovery Platform to Charles River’s PDX models will offer scalability, speed and unmet biological relevance in vitro.”

Highlighting Scientific Excellence

At this week’s AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics: Discovery, Biology, and Clinical Applications, the premier international meeting featuring novel cancer therapeutics, Charles River is presenting two posters showcasing its PDX research, including:

• Establishment and Characterization of a Melanoma Patient-Derived Xenograft Model Comprising Three Different Sublines with Distinct Biological Features (Presented: Saturday, October 28, 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST)
• Targeting the WNT-Pathway in 3D-Cultured In Vitro PDX Models for Pancreas Cancer (Presented: Saturday, October 28, 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST)

Reprints of each poster are available at Charles River’s booth (#207) during the conference and oncology experts are available for meetings with those interested in discussing research and drug discovery.

To learn more about Charles River’s oncology research capabilities, visit www.criver.com.