Beverly Hills, CA (July 24, 2006).
Hurel
Corporation ("Hurel") announced today it has entered into a contract
with Schering Corporation acting through its Schering-Plough Research Institute
division ("SPRI"), under which SPRI joins the Joint Scientific Collaboration
("JSC") of pharmaceutical firms that has been organized by Hurel.
Under the agreement, SPRI will provide both scientific guidance and funding
as Hurel continues its one-year R&D program aimed at validating and developing
its microfluidic, "human-on-a-chip" cell-based assay platform technology
(please see below). Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development,
LLC ("J&JPRD") was the first pharmaceutical firm to enter the JSC,
which commenced R&D operations in January, 2006. Through the JSC, SPRI, J&JPRD,
and Hurel will collectively advance the development of Hurel's proprietary technology,
towards the ultimate goal of making Hurel's products and services ready for widespread
use.
"Schering-Plough
is deeply committed to seeking out and developing new technologies that will enable
pharmaceutical scientists to rely less on animal testing as they search for and
create new medicines," said Catherine D. Strader, Ph.D., executive vice president
for discovery research, Schering-Plough Research Institute, the research and development
arm of Schering-Plough Corporation. "We look forward to collaborating with
Hurel and other participants in the JSC to address the scientific and technical
issues with this exciting new approach."
Dr. Leslie Z. Benet, Professor
of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at UCSF and Chairman of Hurel's Scientific Advisory
Board, said, "At present there are no rapid preclinical tools to mimic the
in vivo interplay of enzymes and transporters. What is needed is a simple flow-through
assembly that must be amenable to incorporating hepatocytes and enterocytes, and
should be high-throughput. Such a novel tool would provide great insights into
the ADME of new molecular entities, expose the reasons for the discordance often
found between the ADME characteristics of drug molecules across animal species
versus humans, and thereby materially reduce the need to rely on animal studies
of the metabolism of drugs intended for humans. I believe Hurel is that novel
preclinical tool. Initial proof-of-principle verification studies performed on
Hurel devices have yielded efficacy, toxicity and metabolic information that was
not producible in conventional static, cell-based assays. I am looking forward
to working with Schering-Plough as well as Johnson & Johnson towards realizing
Hurel's full technical and scientific potential."
"SPRI brings
prodigious technical firepower to the JSC," said Robert Freedman, CEO of
Hurel. "We look forward to working with our new colleagues."
Hurel
Corporation develops microfluidic assay platforms for cell-based studies. Invented
at Cornell University, a patented Hurel® device is a "biochip" comprising
one or more separate but microfluidically interconnected compartments. The compartments
contain cultures of living cells drawn from and/or representing different organs
or tissues of a human or other species. Channels interconnecting the compartments
permit compounds and "blood surrogate" to recirculate as in a living
system. The physical geometry of the system simulates certain pharmacokinetic
parameters-drug residence time, circulatory transit time, or others-so as to mimic
relevant aspects of the physiology of the living animal. When utilized with human
cellular material, Hurel constitutes an "in vivo-surrogate" alternative
to animal testing.
The Company's initial application-a device that models
real-time protein binding, metabolism, and extraction in the liver-will comprise
the world's first comprehensive, in vitro test of first-pass liver bioavailability.
Other applications slated for development include devices for studying inter-organ
toxicities (e.g., liver/lung or liver/kidney) and the integrated mechanisms of
absorption and bioavailability of orally administered compounds.
Hurel
anticipates launching its contract research services in 2007. Direct use of Hurel®
devices is limited to JSC partners until such time as fully developed products
are ready for general release. Hurel is currently in discussion with several additional
large pharmaceutical firms with respect to their joining J&JPRD and SPRI in
the JSC.
Additional
information is available at: www.hurelcorp.com.
Hurel®
and Hµrel® are registered trademarks.