PhysioStim & ACEA Biosciences announce partnership

Cardiac liability of pharmaceutical compounds is a pervasive issue in drug development that needs to be carefully managed and mitigated. PhysioStim will adopt and incorporate ACEA’s xCELLigence RTCA CardioECR system as an important part of its service offerings together with human induced pluripotent stem cells (hi-PSCs), to assess the cardiac liability of pharmaceutical compounds and biologics on cardiomyocyte contractility, integrated ion-channel activity and longer-term viability, and structural toxicity.

PhysioStim is one of Europe’s most recognized and reliable CROs offering electrophysiological studies, preclinical resources, and dedicated expertise in evaluating compounds under GLP (Good Laboratory Practices), in accordance with the International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) S7A and S7B guidelines for cardiac safety assessment. More recently, PhysioStim has taken steps to be aligned with the upcoming FDA-sponsored Comprehensive In Vitro Pro-Arrhythmia (CiPA) initiative guidelines. As part of this initiative, compounds are ranked for their pro-arrhythmic liability using a suite of approaches including the screening of compounds against critical cardiac ion channels expressed recombinantly in non-cardiac cell lines, using in silico methodology and utilizing human-derived cardiomyocytes, such as hiPSCs.

ACEA is the developer of xCELLigence RTCA products with more than 3,000 installations spanning academia, industry and government laboratories. The xCELLigence CardioECR system combines high- frequency measurement of cellular impedance with multi-electrode array technology to simultaneously assess cardiomyocyte contractility, viability, and electrophysiology. The system has distinctive features such as enhanced impedance data acquisition rate (everyone millisecond), simultaneous recording of contractility and electrophysiology and electrical pacing feature all in a microtiter plate format which makes it amenable and attractive for the screening of compounds which may have cardiac liability. The CardioECR system was one of the few selected technologies which were utilized in the validation of compounds as part of the CiPA initiative.

“We are continuing to build our service capabilities with more predictive assays for assessment of cardiac liability, and incorporation ACEA’s CardioECR system is an example of how we are aligning ourselves for the future with the CiPA guidelines,” stated Dr. Marie Le Grand, CEO of PhysioStim. “The fact that the CardioECR system is not only able to assess integrated ion channel activity in hiPSCs, but also contractility and viability is an added advantage which will allow us to screen compounds for cardiac liability with more confidence.”
As part of this partnership, ACEA will direct and refer all service requests in Europe on the CardioECR system to PhysioStim.
“We are happy to work with world-class electrophysiologists and scientists at PhysioStim to better serve our existing customers and those clients that are eager to learn more about the potential cardiac liability of their compounds,” stated Dr. Abassi, VP of Business Development at ACEA.