Roche & Mimetas collaborate to develop human disease models for drug development

Roche is teaming up with Mimetas, a provider of organ-on-chip-based disease model to develop human disease models to characterize novel compounds in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and hepatitis B virus infections (HBV).

The collaboration will see Mimetas developing tissue-based disease models and assays that can help increase the predictability of biomarkers, whilst also reducing animal use is scientific testing. Roche will gain access to technology, disease models, and scientific results and will also receive an option to exclusively license specific disease models and assays for use in drug discovery.

“This exciting collaboration enables our research and early development group to apply state-of-the-art organ-on-a-chip technology in the modeling of IBD and HBV. These models have the potential to improve our understanding of disease biology and transform our drug discovery process,” said James Sabry, global head, Roche Pharma Partnering.

“The collaboration with Roche leverages our ongoing focus on developing predictive, phenotypic models, preceded by numerous successful projects over the last eight years,” said Jos Joore, CEO of Mimetas. “We will leverage our disease modeling expertise in our world-leading OrganoPlate platform to gain novel insights in IBD and HBV. Working together with the outstanding Roche team, we hope to make a difference in the lives of patients.”