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Hepregen
Biotech Specialty Pharma
200 Boston Avenue, Suite 1500
Medford, MA 02155 United States
phone:781-391-0205
fax:781-391-0315
Symbol Private
Founded 2007
Employees 13
www.hepregen.com
Research Sector Biotech Specialty Pharma
Summary Description
Prediction of drugs? effects on human liver
Management
Bernadette (Bonnie) Fendrock, President and CEO; Jack McGeehan, Vice President, Operations; Mann Shoffner, Director, Marketing and Sales
Keywords
toxicity screening, microliver platform, liver, toxicity, recall, predictor, metabolism, drug testing

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Updated: May 02, 2012

Description
Hepregen Corporation aims to transform drug development with the commercialization of HepatoPac, a long-term, highly functional, bio-engineered, in-vitro, microliver platform launched in March 2011 that allows better prediction of the effects of drugs on the human liver. Liver toxicity is one of the primary reasons that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies recall some drugs from the market and never release others. HepatoPac provides opportunity for chronic testing of drugs and drug-drug interactions, as well as drug metabolism and toxicity screening much earlier than is currently possible in drug development. HepatoPac fits into existing work-flows and is amenable to High Content Screening, allowing it to become an integral part of pre-clinical analysis for DMPK and Safety; its utility is currently being validated and adopted by several leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. HepatoPac is also equipped to impact the areas of drug discovery, metabolite profiling, disease modeling, and toxicogenomics. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center awarded this earlier-stage drug-screening company a $500,000 grant in May 2011.
Products / Services
HepatoPac is being used by more than 20 Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies for in vitro DMPK/Tox applications and for efficacy assessment of drugs to treat diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Currently, most customers select to access HepatoPac through service partnerships where work is performed at Hepregen. The company will be launching multiple product applications of HepatoPac throughout 2012 through technology access and licensing arrangements.
Technology / Differentiation
Key manuscripts describing the platform and application were published in Nature Biotech (2008) and DMD (2010).
Market / Customers
Hepregen's customers are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The immediate application of Hepregen's microliver platform is to better predict the effects (metabolism and toxicity) of drugs on the human liver. Liver toxicity is one of the main reasons that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies recall drugs from the market. In addition, as much as 50% to 60% of compounds never reach the market due to liver toxicity. In close collaboration with pharmaceutical partners, The high functionality, long term viability and simplicity of use provide a range of opportunities beyond the existing technologies. Current technologies are limited in generating meaningful data which correlates to the in vivo situation due to the short term viability of systems. As examples, these opportunities include long term or chronic testing of drugs, drug interactions and high-throughput drug metabolism and toxicity screening much earlier in drug discovery and development.
Competitors / Substitutes / Alternatives
The current competitors are life science tool companies which offer products such as hepatoma cell lines, primary and cryopreserved hepatocytes, sandwich and suspension cultures. These are the widely adopted technologies by the pharmaceutical industry.
Strategy
Hepregen is focused on achieving profitability in 2013 and establishing a successful business that impacts pharmaceutical decision making. Hepregen plans to develop novel applications of the HepatoPac model in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. These applications include drug discovery for diseases which impact the liver, utlilization with stem cell technology, and creation of liver disease models.
Funding
In 2008, Hepregen raised a $5M Series A financing led by Battelle Ventures and has been revenue generating since 2010. Hepregen is a MIT spin-out and holds the exclusive license to a portfolio of patents and patent applications for bioengineered in vitro technology. In addition to equity financing, Hepregen has been the recipient of almost $3M in state and federal grant funding. Hepregen seeks strategic relationships with pharmaceutical companies to fully leverage the HepatoPac asset in novel application. Partnerships with life science tool companies are also of interest where adjacent technologies may compliment and offer great value to customers. Hepregen is looking to close a $7M Series B round in order to grow the commercial and operations organization to achieve profitability in 2013.