Inaphaea BioLabs has grown significantly since it was established in 2023. We have made great strides in commercialising our patient derived cell (PDC) bank and now offer cells for purchase and testing services from our collection of over 470 PDCs, representing 66 types of cancer.
2024 has seen Inaphaea forge several new partnerships and collaborations, develop our lab team, and progress the research projects of our customers and of our parent company, ValiRx. Here, we take a look at our year in review:
Partnerships and collaborations
Our portfolio of services at Inaphaea is consistently growing, and we were pleased to announce a number of agreements and collaborations this year:
Collaboration with DefiniGEN – we collaborated with DefiniGEN for the profiling of drug candidates for liver disease and liver toxicity using their in vitro, IPSC-derived, hepatocyte assays.
Evaluation and commercial use agreement with BioReperia – we announced the execution of an evaluation and commercial use agreement with Swedish contract research organisation (CRO) BioReperia to provide Inaphaea’s patient derived cells for evaluation and commercial use in BioReperia unique in vivo ZTX platform.
Evaluation and commercial use agreement with DLOC – we confirmed the execution of an agreement with UK-based DLOC Biosystems Holdings Ltd (DLOC) to provide Inaphaea’s PDCs for evaluation and commercial use in DLOC’s state-of-the-art organ-on-a-chip technology.
Co-marketing agreement with Spanios LLC – we signed a co-marketing agreement with US CRO Spanios to provide Inaphaea’s high throughput drug screening services using our PDCs as a precursor to Spanios’ proprietary Patient Derived Tumoroids (PDT). This deal was the first co-marketing arrangement for Inaphaea in the US and demonstrates the synergy of our PDC approach for rapid and economic screening of larger numbers of drug candidates before transferring lead candidates into Spanios’ lower throughput but higher complexity, ex-vivo models.
Evaluation and commercial use agreement with Xenopat – Inaphaea also confirmed an agreement with Spanish CRO Xenopat. The deal will see Inaphaea provide our PDCs for evaluation and commercial use in Xenopat’s in vivo Xenograft platform and provide access to Inaphaea’s 470+ PDCs which can be added at any time.
Co-marketing agreement with Ignota Labs – we were also pleased to confirm an agreement with emerging UK drug turnaround biotech Ignota Labs to collaborate on the exchange of data from our biobank to generate insights, co-develop new assets, and explore joint business opportunities, including grant funding. The agreement builds upon an initial collaboration partnership between Ignota and Inaphaea.
Co-marketing agreement with BioRep – Inaphaea confirmed the execution of a co-marketing agreement with Italian biobanking service provider BioRep, a Sapio Group company, to provide Inaphaea’s high throughput drug screening services and PDCs to BioRep’s network of clients. BioRep will provide backup samples, storage and logistic services, in addition to molecular biology services into mainland Europe.
Open University prostate cancer project – Inaphaea confirmed a collaboration on a project using funds from The Open University’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to characterise the subtype and drug sensitivity of up to 12 prostate cancer lines from our PDC bank. In addition, Inaphaea’s parent company ValiRx will be co-sponsoring a PhD studentship over the course of four years at The Open University titled ‘Deciphering the epigenetic vulnerabilities of neuroendocrine prostate cancer through novel patient-derived models.’
New business wins
Contract with US biotech – we were delighted to confirm the execution of a revenue-bearing contract for the provision of patient derived oncology cell (PDC) based services with a US biotech company. The contract is a multi-stage project and encompasses analysis and provision of RNA data, in addition to bespoke cell-based screening in the laboratory. This initial phase of work will commence immediately, and the project is structured to build a long-term working relationship with the client with scope to include potential future material revenue generation.
Contract with AMPLY Discovery – we also confirmed the execution of a further contract to provide cell-based assays to UK biotech company, AMPLY Discovery Limited. The multiphase contract will evaluate various formulations of AMPLY’s developmental siRNA targets in Inaphaea’s triple negative breast cancer PDCs as stand-alone agents and in combination with standard-of-care drugs.
The news followed the confirmation of a customer shipment of Inaphaea’s first batch of PDCs which are part of our new range of Assay Ready Reagents, as we continue to align our services with our strategic partners.
Lab team development
PhD achievement and promotion for Dr Amelia Hatfield – Inaphaea’s Amelia Hatfield passed her PhD viva and was promoted to the position of Senior Scientist. The primary research goal of her PhD was to understand the mechanisms of actions of a set of anti-cancer agents in colorectal cancer, with a specific focus on mutant KRAS.
Melissa Barr promoted to Head of Scientific Operations – Inaphaea promoted Melissa Barr to Head of Scientific Operations. Melissa joined Inaphaea in 2023 as Lead Scientist. Since then, she has played an instrumental role in delivering preclinical drug discovery projects across oncology and women’s health, as well as leading a team of scientists on-site.
Commercial activities
In other news, the Inaphaea team attended a number of industry events this year with the aim of promoting the company’s bespoke offering to potential customers around the world. A key event for the team this year was the BIO International Convention in San Diego, attended by Inaphaea’s Andrew Carnegie and Mark Eccleston. BIO helped to broaden Inaphaea’s reach and enabled us to engage with customers globally, highlighting our PDC models and immuno-oncology assays.
This year, Mark Eccleston was appointed Non-Executive Director for life sciences membership organisation Medilink Midlands. Medilink Midlands champions collaboration and innovation across the life sciences industry in the Midlands and beyond, and as members, we’re looking forward to seeing what new opportunities this partnership will bring.
Looking to 2025
We are excited about the opportunities the coming year will bring as we continue to grow Inaphaea and advance our innovative portfolio of drug development projects.
At Inaphaea, we are committed to conducting science that is reproducible, human-relevant, and translatable, ensuring efficient progress from discovery through preclinical stages and into clinical development.
To discuss any of our updates, please contact Dr Andrew Carnegie, Head of Strategic Commercial Development at Inaphaea BioLabs, who will be happy to help.