HemoShear, LLC, the human disease biology company, has entered into a research collaboration with Stockholm, Sweden-based Medivir AB, an emerging research-based pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases.  

The collaboration will explore the application of HemoShear’s platform in an undisclosed area of strategic interest.  In this initial phase of the collaboration, HemoShear will characterize biological mechanisms and the effects of drug candidates on liver tissue using the company’s first-in-class human liver system.

The HemoShear human liver system accurately replicates in vivo physiological conditions, enabling a more precise and definitive assessment of targets and drug candidates, drug-induced changes in biology and pharmacological responses.

“Meaningful improvements in the safety and efficacy of drug candidates are possible when they are evaluated and designed using systems that more closely replicate human physiology,” said Brett Blackman, HemoShear co-founder and chief scientific officer. “Our collaboration with Medivir will allow them to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of action underlying compounds that target the liver.”

The collaboration with Medivir will also leverage and contribute to the set of drug exposure data HemoShear is creating as part of an ongoing program funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a division of NIH.  This initiative, which began in late 2013, is intended to demonstrate that use of more human-relevant systems can more accurately predict the safety of new drug candidates well before the costly clinical stages of drug development.

HemoShear is also collaborating with other major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to discover drug candidates that target the liver and understand unexpected causes of liver toxicity.