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Three multinational pharmaceutical companies have entered into a partnership with the UK government to develop human embryonic stem cells for use in toxicity testing (reported in Reuters). Stem Cells for Safer Medicine (SC4SM), a non-profit British company to be headed by Philip Wright, science director at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, will be the first major public-private collaboration in stem cell research. Drug giants GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Roche have each contributed £0.1 million to help fund the first year's work, whilst the British government is contributing £0.75 million; other drug companies are expected to join soon.

 

Within its 5 year programme, the consortium will focus on converting stem cells into specific differentiated cell lines for toxicity testing; it will not directly investigate the therapeutic use of stem cells to treat disease. This type of research falls under the broad heading of “animal-on-a-chip” technology, and could significantly reduce the need for animal testing by providing alternatives for evaluating drug toxicity. Reduction in live animal testing is desirable on practical and commercial grounds as well as ethical grounds. Around 10% of the 3 million animals used for testing in the UK in 2006 were used for toxicity testing by the pharmaceutical industry (see Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2006) and the number is likely to increase dramatically as a result of the recent European Union legislation regarding the regulation of chemicals (REACH).

 

More than 90% of new drugs entering into clinical trials fail to get to market, either due to lack of effectiveness or adverse side-effects not predicted during pre-clinical development. SC4SM will initially focus on producing liver cells (hepatocytes) from stem cells, as unexpected liver toxicity is the biggest single reason why new drugs fail during clinical trials. In the longer term, the consortium will investigate differentiating stem cells into various other cell types including heart cells (cardiomyocytes).