Charles River expanding assay lineup via Toxys tie-up

31-Jan-2019 - Last updated on 31-Jan-2019 at 15:22 GMT

(Image: Getty/Pattanaphong Khuankaew)

Related tags Charles river laboratories Toxicity assays

Charles River is offering Toxys’ ToxTracker in an agreement that will see its portfolio of genetic toxicology assays expand to customers in North America.

ToxTracker is a suite of assays that enable carcinogenicity toxicity hazard identification in novel and existing drugs, chemicals, and other substances.

Renato Cardoso, PhD, DABT, scientific director of genetic toxicology at Charles River said the agreement provides customers an opportunity to run ToxTracker in North American facilities, expanding their assay options.

Read: Global in vitro toxicity testing market to reach $8.8bn by 2023

ToxTracker also can be used to screen chemicals for genotoxicity, and by combining biomarkers, provides mechanistic insight into undesired compound properties, according to the company.

“When used in screening, ToxTracker can help select the best compounds to advance because it has a very high correlation with regulatory assay results,” he told us. “As a GLP assay, ToxTracker can provide weight of evidence for a safe exposure limit to compounds that had adverse results in regulatory assays.”

ToxTracker has been validated using reference compound libraries recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast) and the European Union Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM).

According to the company, the validation showed ToxTracker’s ability to detect genotox compounds at a high sensitivity (94%) and specificity (95%).

Toxys’ ReproTracker, which is currently under development, is slated for commercial launch later this year. The new tool will provide in vitro developmental toxicity hazard identification, according to the company.