SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 4, 2013) - VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. ( OTCQB : VSTA ), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism assays, and Celsis In Vitro Technologies ("Celsis"), the premier global provider of specialized in vitro products for drug metabolism, drug-drug interaction and toxicity screening, have entered into a new strategic collaboration agreement. The comprehensive goal of the agreement is to characterize and functionally benchmark VistaGen's human liver cell platform, LiverSafe 3D, for studying and predicting human liver drug metabolism.
VistaGen will utilize Celsis' experience and expertise in in vitro drug metabolism to help validate VistaGen's human liver cell platform.In this strategic collaboration Celsis will not only validate VistaGen's stem cell-derived liver cells in traditional pharmaceutical metabolism assays, but will also determine genetic variations in VistaGen's pluripotent stem cell lines that are important to drug development.In addition, VistaGen will utilize Celsis' human cadaver-derived liver cells, currently used throughout the pharmaceutical industry for traditional drug metabolism assays, as reference controls with which to monitor and benchmark the functional properties of VistaGen's human liver cell platform.
With the assistance of Celsis scientists, VistaGen aims to achieve four key objectives:
"As an industry leader in the development of in vitro primary hepatocyte technology, Celsis has extensive resources to aid us in the benchmarking of our novel liver cell-based platform to industry standards," said H. Ralph Snodgrass, PhD, VistaGen's President and Chief Scientific Officer. "We anticipate this collaboration will lead to the further validation of our LiverSafe 3D system for predicting liver toxicity and drug metabolism issues long before costly human clinical trials."
"This is another example of our long-term dedication to using the power of human pluripotent stem cells as the basis of more predictive in vitro tools for drug discovery and development," concluded Dr. Snodgrass.
About VistaGen Therapeutics
VistaGen is a biotechnology company applying human pluripotent stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism screening. VistaGen's drug rescue activities combine its human pluripotent stem cell technology platform, Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube, with modern medicinal chemistry to generate novel, safer chemical variants (Drug Rescue Variants) of once-promising small molecule drug candidates. These are drug candidates discontinued by pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) or university laboratories, after substantial investment in discovery and development, due to heart or liver toxicity or metabolism issues. VistaGen uses its pluripotent stem cell technology to generate early indications, or predictions, of how humans will ultimately respond to new drug candidates before they are ever tested in humans, bringing human biology to the front end of the drug development process.
VistaGen's small molecule prodrug candidate, AV-101, has completed Phase 1 development for treatment of neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain, a serious and chronic condition causing pain after an injury or disease of the peripheral or central nervous system, affects millions of people worldwide.
Visit VistaGen at http://www.VistaGen.com, follow VistaGen at http://www.twitter.com/VistaGen or view VistaGen's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/VistaGen.
About Celsis In Vitro Technologies
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VistaGen Therapeutics Enters Strategic Collaboration With Celsis to Further Advance LiverSafe 3D(TM)
