GE Healthcare and Eurofins Panlabs agree drug discovery alliance

GE Healthcare has granted Eurofins Panlabs exclusive rights to offer its Cytiva Cardiomyocytes as part of Eurofins Scientific's drug discovery and early development cardiotoxicity screening services.

This agreement will allow Eurofins Panlabs to provide clients with an early predictive measure of cardiac toxicity and function in a manner that is more cost-effective and time-efficient than current animal testing models.

Cytiva Cardiomyocytes are a range of human cell-based models developed by GE Healthcare to offer a biologically relevant alternative to current cell models and primary cells for predictive cardiotoxicity testing.

Given that up to three-quarters of toxicity problems in drug development remain undetected until preclinical or later stages, this new service is likely to be considered valuable.

Eric Roman, general manager of research and applied markets at GE Healthcare Life Sciences, said: "Cardiotoxicity is a common cause of late-stage drug failure, so it's vital that developers have access to the right tools to help reduce this high attrition rate and to help increase patient safety."

Last month, GE Healthcare was granted European CE Mark accreditation for SenoClaire, its next-generation breast tomosynthesis solution designed with 3D imaging technology.