November 2011
HEPREGEN CORPORATION AND PARTNERS PRESENT FINDINGS AT KEY RESEARCH MEETING. HepatoPac™ Liver Model is Touted for its Value to Predict Clinical Parameters of Commercially Available Drugs.
Medford, MA, November 2, 2011 – At the annual meeting of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX), Hepregen Corporation, and two of its pharmaceutical customers, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Elan Pharmaceuticals presented new preclinical data in poster presentations that tested Hepregen’s proprietary microliver technology platform, HepatoPac™, for predicting clearance of drugs which are slowly removed by the liver. Of the commercially available drugs tested, 89 percent were predicted correctly (within two-fold of reported clinical values), while the remaining drugs were within three-to-four fold. Suspension hepatocytes typically used for this type of study do not turn over these drugs sufficiently to make this determination.
These data demonstrated that Hepregen’s HepatoPac liver model can be used effectively to predict the clearance of low turnover drugs in humans. MORE (PDF) >
May 2011
Hepregen Corporation Awarded Massachusetts Life Sciences Center 2011 Small Business Matching Grant. Company receives $500,000 grant; continues growth through adoption of its microliver platform, HepatoPac™, by leading biopharmaceutical companies. Medford, MA, May 26, 2011 – The Massachusetts Life Science Center announced yesterday that Hepregen Corporation, a leading provider of bioengineered solutions that increase success in drug development in order to improve patient safety, was awarded a $500,000 grant as part of the Small Business Matching Grants program established by the Life Sciences Act of 2008. The Center’s program, launched in January 2010 as part of the state’s ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, leverages federal small business grant funding that early-stage life sciences companies in the Commonwealth have received for their work in life sciences research and development, commercialization and manufacturing.
Hepregen’s lead product HepatoPac™, launched in March 2011, is a microliver platform for use in clearance predictions, metabolite profiling, transporter studies, drug-drug interactions, and toxicity determination during the drug development process. The utility of HepatoPac in ADME/Tox applications is being validated and adopted by several leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. In an announcement earlier this year, Hepregen detailed the expansion of its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim for the integration of HepatoPac into drug discovery and development programs. MORE (PDF) >
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Announces 2011 Small Business Matching Grant (SBMG) Program Awards. Center Awards $2 million to foster job growth and technology commercialization in the Massachusetts Life Sciences Supercluster. Waltham, MA – The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Board of Directors (“the Center”) today awarded $2 million in Small Business Matching Grants to four life sciences companies. Each company will receive $500,000 from the Center that matches federal small business grant funding that the companies have been awarded previously. The grants represent the second round of awards issued under the Center’s Small Business Matching Grant (“SBMG”) Program, established by the Life Sciences Act of 2008. Three companies received $1.5 million in grants through the Center’s first round of awards in May of 2010.
The Center’s Small Business Matching Grant Program, launched in January 2010 as part of the state’s ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, leverages federal small business grant funding that early-stage life sciences companies in the Commonwealth have received for their work in life sciences research and development, commercialization and manufacturing. Goals of the Center’s program include the creation of jobs in Massachusetts through the commercialization of products with high potential for market adoption and penetration. MORE (PDF) >
March 2011
Hepregen Corporation Presents Results of Liver Toxicity Study at Annual Meeting of The Society of Toxicoloty. Hepregen’s Microliver Platform, HepatoPac™, Provides Increased Confidence in Drug Development to Impact Patient Safety. Washington, D.C./Medford, MA, March 10, 2011 - At the 50th Anniversary of the Annual Meeting of Society of Toxicology (SOT), Hepregen Corporation announced today the successful use of its HepatoPac platform in an in vitro study demonstrating the species-specific liver toxicity of Fialuridine (FIAU). The results of the study are being presented today in a poster session. Hepregen Corporation is a leading provider of bioengineered solutions that increase success in drug development in order to improve patient safety.
Researchers from Hepregen Corporation, in collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, investigated the acute and chronic toxicity profiles of FIAU and several analogues in Human and Rat HepatoPac. Using multiple endpoints, FIAU exhibited acute (4 day) and chronic (15 day) dose-dependent toxicity in human HepatoPac. The toxicity was specific to FIAU alone, whereas other nucleoside analogues did not cause toxicity to the same extent. By contrast, Rat Hepatocytes in the HepatoPac platform were not affected by FIAU in the short term and were only mildly impacted chronically, mimicking the species specific in vivo observations. MORE (PDF) >
Hepregen Corporation Announces Commercial Launch of HepatoPac™ Microliver Platform for In Vitro ADME/Tox Applications. Medford, MA, March 3, 2011 - Hepregen Corporation, a leading provider of bioengineered solutions that increase success in drug development in order to improve patient safety, will launch its proprietary technology platform, HepatoPac, at the SOT 50th Anniversary Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in Washington, D.C. on March 7, 2011.
HepatoPac is a microliver platform for use in clearance predictions, metabolite profiling, transporter studies, and toxicity determination during the drug development process. Hepregen’s HepatoPac products will be available through its services model initially, and then later this year through direct product sales. MORE (PDF) >
January 2011
Hepregen Corporation Expands Agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim for the Adoption of HepatoPac™. Medford, MA, January 6, 2011 - Hepregen Corporation, a leading provider of bioengineered solutions to improve patient outcomes, announced today that it has extended and expanded its agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the adoption of its proprietary technology platform, HepatoPac.
The expansion results from collaborative efforts the two companies began in 2009 aimed at evaluating HepatoPac for ADME/Tox applications. Under the terms of the new agreement, Hepregen will work with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to integrate HepatoPac into drug discovery and development programs. MORE (PDF) >
January 2010
Hepregen Corporation Receives SBIR Phase II Grant from the National Science Foundation and Presents Corporate Update at OneMedForum.San Francisco, CA and Medford, MA, January 13, 2010 - Hepregen Corporation, a leading provider of bioengineered solutions for drug development, announced today that it has received a Phase II SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation for $500,000. This latest award, in addition to the company’s receipt of a prestigious Challenge Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with earlier grant awards, approaches $2.0M in federal funding.
Hepregen will also be a featured speaker this afternoon at OneMedForum, where CEO Bernadette (Bonnie) Fendrock will highlight the company’s successful progress since its Series A financing in 2008 from Battelle Ventures, as well as outline important milestones for 2010 and beyond. MORE (PDF) >
February 2009
Battelle Ventures Spins Out Life Science Company from MIT, Committing $5 Million in Series A Funding to Hepregen Corp.PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 25, 2009 - Battelle Ventures, LP, has spun out Hepregen
Corporation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a commitment
of a $5-million Series A investment from the fund and its Tennessee affiliate, Innovation
Valley Partners.
The company, which is developing bioengineered solutions for drug development,
received the first $3 million from the funds last summer, leaving an additional $2 million
committed and available at management’s request. MORE (PDF) >
• June, 2011 (Life Science Leader) "Drug Safety — Time For A Great Leap Forward?" MORE >
• March 30, 2011 (Nature International weekly journal of science/nature.com) "Tissue models: A living system on a chip" MORE >
• July 1, 2010 (Drug Metabolism and Disposition) Wendy WeiWei Wang, Salman R. Khetani, Stacy Krzyzewski, David Duignan and R. Scott Obach. Assessment of a micropatterned hepatocyte coculture system to generate major human excretory and circulating drug metabolites. Drug Metabolism and Disposition, Vol. 38(10), p 1900-1905 (2010). MORE >
• September 7, 2009 (Boston.com) "Liver cells may aid drug-safety studies" MORE >
• June 8, 2009 (FierceBiotech)""More women breaking biotech's glass ceiling"" MORE >
• April 16-30, 2009 (INDIA New England Online) "Hepregen Process Helps Liver Cells Live" MORE >
• April 2009 (Drug Discovery News) ""Putting liver on a chip"" MORE >
• February 27, 2009 (Cell-Based Assay News) "Battelle Ventures Spins Out Hepregen with $5M in Funding to Develop 'Microliver' Tox Platform" MORE >
• January 8, 2008 (Drug Discovery News) "Honey, I shrunk the liver" MORE >
• November 29, 2007(Technology Review) "Liver Models Go to Market" MORE >
• March 2006 (Technology Review) "A Better Toxicity Test" MORE >
January 2010
Hepregen Awarded $500,000 SBIR Phase II Grant from NSF
September 2009
Hepregen Awarded NIH Challenge Grant
March 2009
Hepregen Awarded $50,000 SBIR Phase IB Grant from NSF
September 2008
Hepregen Awarded $100,000 SBIR Phase I Grant from FDA
April 2008
Hepregen Awarded $100,000 SBIR Phase I Grant from NSF