Fujifilm, Axcelead to Collaborate on iPSC Drug Discovery Solutions

On July 10, 2019, Fujifilm Corporation announced that it is collaborating with Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners to provide a human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based integrated platform for drug discovery solutions. Together, the companies will work toward developing new drug-efficacy evaluation methods and toxicity testing to meet specific client needs.

According to the companies, they plan to combine their respective technologies and expertise to develop evaluation methods and services as well as to accelerate new drug development. Specifically, the companies will use iPSC-derived products from Fujifilm’s subsidiary, Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics (FCDI), along with Axcelead’s services to evaluate and analyze drug candidate compounds. 

“This partnership will use FCDI’s core expertise in the scalable production of diverse, human iPS-derived cells,” said Takeshi Yamamoto, CEO of FCDI, in the press statement. “This human cell-based platform has [the] potential to assess drug toxicity more accurately than currently used methods and find new drug targets not possible in animal models.”

Source: Fujifilm