Cresset and InoCardia to develop in silico cardiac safety assay for drug candidate screening

Cambridge, UK – 9th June 2020 – Cresset Discovery Services, provider of contract research services for early phase discovery, and InoCardia, provider of cardiac safety testing models, are pleased to announce a one year collaboration to develop improved computational methods for cardiac safety assessment. This collaboration also includes the University of Coventry and UCB and is supported by EIT Digital.

The collaboration builds on a successful 2019 proof of concept project. In this new phase Cresset Discovery Services and their project partners will utilise Ligand-based similarity methods in Forge™, docking and Electrostatic Complementarity™ in Flare™ and chemical space analysis to model key biological modes of action. The models will be used to predict biological response.

“This exciting collaboration will produce valuable and useful work,” says Dr Robert Scoffin, Cresset CEO. “In silico predictions are increasingly being used alongside time-consuming or expensive wet biological assays to create a fuller picture of the pharmacological landscape.”

“Drug-induced cardiac contractility issues are often identified too late in R&D campaigns,” says Dr Jeremy Billson, CEO at InoCardia. “Our novel assays improve early detection of cardiac safety issues and we are looking forward to extending this further using computational methods to help pharmacologists avoid expensive downstream problems.”

This activity has received funding from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). This body of the European Union receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.