13.06.2013InSphero secures CHF 2 Million Financing

Zurich, Switzerland, June 13, 2013 – InSphero AG, experts in three-dimensional microtissue technology, have secured CHF 2 Million in Series B financing to ensure future growth of the company in the US and East Asian market. PDF version

Since its founding in 2009, InSphero has established strong footholds in the market of 3D cell culture for highly predictive drug development and testing, serving most of the top 10 global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies. To expand its rapidly growing business in the US and East Asia and to meet the increasing customer demand for its 3D microtissues the company successfully closed a financing round of CHF 2 million last month. This series B financing was led by existing and two new private investors from Switzerland bringing a mixture of equity capital and long-term loans to InSphero.

Dr Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of InSphero, says: “We are very proud that our existing investors recognize InSphero’s achievements and potential and that they make this important commitment to the future of the company. These funds allow us to continue to expand our business in the US and to invest into our recently established subsidiary InSphero, Inc. in Cambridge, MA further enhancing customer support in this important market. Moreover, the new capital will support our growing sales and marketing activities in Japan, Korea and Singapore and help us to expand our automatic production line for tumor and liver microtissue models to keep in step with constantly increasing customer demand.”

To find out more about InSphero stay on our website

InSphero contact

Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, phone +41 44 5150490, jan.lichtenberg@insphero.com

Manuela Vujevic, Head of Marketing Communications, phone +41 44 5150490, manuela.vujevic@insphero.com

About InSphero

InSphero is a leading supplier of organotypic, biological in vitro 3D microtissues for highly predictive drug testing. The company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, currently counts 7 of the top ten global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies as customers. InSphero 3D Insight™ Microtissues enable more biologically relevant in vitro applications in efficacy and toxicology. The spin-off company of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and the University Zurich has been recognized for its scientific and commercial achievements with a number of national and international awards and is also certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard for its Quality Management System.

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05.11.2012InSphero ranked #2 Startup of the Year in Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland, November 5, 2012 – InSphero AG, experts in three-dimensional microtissue technology, is proud to announce that the company has been ranked number 2 startup in the TOP 100 Swiss Startups 2012 list and recognized for its global success and customer base of top pharma companies. PDF version

Around 100 experts from the Swiss business startup scene have ranked InSphero number 2 startup (all categories) in Switzerland and, again, as in 2011, number 1 startup in the biotech space. The jury recognized the global success of InSphero's 3D microtissue technology for more predictive compound testing and the fact that InSphero currently counts 7 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies as customers.

Dr Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of InSphero, says: "At InSphero we are very proud of the accomplishment and appreciate the recognition accorded to the company and its dedicated employees. This is a great success for us, given the strengths of other startup companies in Switzerland. At the same time this high ranking is a clear indication that business veterans, investors and startup experts recognize the global awareness that InSphero has generated for 3D cell culture and its sustainably growing business."

To find out more about InSphero stay on our website

To read the official media coverage (in German only) click here or visit www.startup.ch

InSphero contact

Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, phone +41 44 5150490, jan.lichtenberg@insphero.com

Manuela Vujevic, Head of Marketing Communications, phone +41 44 5150490, manuela.vujevic@insphero.com

About InSphero

 InSphero is a leading supplier of organotypic, biological in vitro 3D microtissues for highly predictive drug testing. The company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, currently counts 7 of the top ten global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies as customers. InSphero 3D Insight™ Microtissues enable more biologically relevant in vitro applications in efficacy (e.g. in oncology) and toxicology, including long-term and inflammation-mediated toxicity. A broad portfolio of tumor and liver microtissues is available from a number of cell sources, with additional toxicology models in the pipeline. The spin-off company of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and the University Zurich has been recognized for its scientific and commercial achievements with a number of national and international awards and is also certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard for its Quality Management System.

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13.09.2012Cyprotex to offer new long-term toxicity testing service using InSphero 3D InSight™ Liver Microtissues

Zurich, Switzerland, 13. September 2012 – InSphero AG, experts in three dimensional microtissue research, and Cyprotex PLC (LSE: CRX), the specialist preclinical contract research organisation (CRO), announce a joint service offering which combines the expertise of both companies to provide customers with advanced cellular models of drug-induced toxicity in the liver.  PDF version

The new liver toxicology screening service will use InSphero's 3D InSightTM liver model and will be performed at Cyprotex's laboratories, where customers will have the benefit of Cyprotex's extensive expertise in ADME and toxicology. InSphero's liver model has the advantage that the cells are viable for a longer time period and so multiple dose studies can be performed over an extended time course.

Hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity) is one of the most common reasons for drug withdrawal through drug-induced toxicity. Conventional preclinical toxicology studies fail to predict human hepatotoxicity in approximately 50% of cases. This has led to an urgent need for human cell-based in vitro models which are representative of the native organ.

The current industry approach is to use cells in a single layer culture (known as a 2D monolayer). InSphero has invented a unique high-throughput approach to generating 3D microtissues from single cells. InSphero's microtissues have the advantage of being completely scaffold-free and do not rely on a bioartificial matrix for tissue formation. This leads to highly functional microtissues, which show stable enzyme activity over extended periods of time. Compared to 2D cultures, 3D microtissues more closely mimic native tissues and organs and form natural cell-to-cell attachments. Both single cell type and multiple cell type models can be produced.

Dr Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of InSphero, commented: "We are very proud that Cyprotex has recognized the value of InSphero's highly functional 3D liver microtissues and will now be helping industry to exploit the advantages of the model. Our joint offering combines leading 3D cell-culture expertise with the proven ADME-Tox experience of a world-leading specialist. This assures high-quality data and reliable processes for our fee-for-service customers and makes advanced, predictive toxicology testing easily available to drug developers worldwide."

Commenting on the joint offering, Dr. Anthony Baxter, the Chief Executive Officer of Cyprotex, said: "A key objective of our research is to improve the extrapolation of in vitro data to the clinical situation. The value of InSphero's 3D microtissues is that they are more predictive of the in vivo processes when compared with existing 2D models. With InSphero providing robust and reliable 3D liver models we have found an excellent partner to fulfil our key objective."

To find out more about this service, visit www.insphero.com/services

InSphero contact

Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, phone +41 44 5150490, jan.lichtenberg@insphero.com

Manuela Vujevic, Head of Marketing Communications, phone +41 44 5150490, manuela.vujevic@insphero.com

Cyprotex contact

Dr Anthony Baxter, Chief Executive Officer
John Dootson, Chief Financial Officer
Mark Warburton, Chief Operating Officer and Legal Counsel

phone +44 (0) 1625 505 100, ir@cyprotex.com , www.cyprotex.com

About InSphero

InSphero is a leading supplier of organotypic, biological in vitro 3D microtissues for highly predictive drug testing. The company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, currently counts 7 of the top ten global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies as customers. InSphero 3D Insight™ Microtissues enable more biologically relevant in vitro applications in efficacy (e.g. in oncology) and toxicology, including long-term and inflammation-mediated toxicity. A broad portfolio of tumour and liver microtissues is available from a number of cell sources, with additional toxicology models in the pipeline. The spin-off company of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and the University Zurich has been recognised for its scientific and commercial achievements with a number of national and international awards and is also certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard for its Quality Management System.

About Cyprotex

Cyprotex is based in Macclesfield, near Manchester in the UK, and Watertown, Boston in the US and is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (CRX). The company was established in 1999 and works with more than 700 partners ranging from small biotechs to large pharma companies. Cyprotex acquired Apredica and the assets of Cellumen Inc. in August 2010 and the combined business provides support for a wide range of experimental and computational ADME-Tox and PK services, extending from early drug discovery through to IND submission. The company's core capabilities include high quality in vitro ADME screening services, mechanistic toxicology and high content toxicology screening services and predictive modelling using PBPK and QSAR techniques, including Cloe® PK for in vivo PK prediction. For more information, see www.cyprotex.com

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24.07.2012InSphero coordinates European Union project to develop next-generation test device for pharmaceutical drug screening

Zurich, Switzerland, 24. July 2012 – InSphero, a leading supplier of 3D microtissues for predictive drug testing, is proud to announce that it will coordinate a Future Emerging Technology project (FET open) funded by the European Union to develop inter-connected microtissue systems to further improve compound de-risking. PDF version

Drug development processes in the pharmaceutical industry are highly time- and cost intensive. The translation from in vitro to in vivo is affected by high failure rates of candidate compounds in pre-clinical and clinical phases. To mitigate this, there is an urgent need for more predictive in vitro models, capable of mimicking biological processes of organisms more reliably. The FP7 FETopen project “Body-on-a-Chip”, coordinated by InSphero, sets out to close this gap by developing an integrated, highly compact system for next generation drug screening efforts.

The model system will incorporate organotypic microtissues on a microfluidic device, allowing for the simulation of tissue interactions in vivo. Implementation of highly sensitive analytics will enable the detection of biological changes in the individual tissues, thereby helping to predict the biological impact of candidate compounds on efficacy and safety in parallel.

InSphero is pleased to co-develop the Body-on-a-Chip with leading academic and industrial partners. The teaming-up of excellent expertise in the domains of microfluidics (Prof. Dr. A. Hierlemann, ETH Zurich), microtissue biology (Prof. Dr. J. G. Hengstler, IFADO), cell-based assay development (Dr. E. Tang, AstraZeneca) and high sensitivity analytics (Prof. Dr. L. Schoofs, KULeuven) will be central for the success of the project. Development efforts will be bundled to design a system that has the potential to answer fundamental biological questions, but is at the same time compatible with the requirements of industrial screening initiatives. “The close cooperation with a high profile industry partner will allow InSphero to develop and validate the new chip directly ‘in the field’, permitting us to design the device in accordance with an actual industrial need”, says Dr. David Fluri, coordinator of the project at InSphero.

For InSphero the FETopen project will be important to develop next generation drug testing devices. The new technology integrates well into the existing 3D InSight™ product portfolio and allows InSphero ultimately to provide more predictive tissue models for toxicology and drug screening applications. ”Within the scope of InSphero’s mission to provide better in vitro biology, the interconnection of several tissue types is, for us, the next step towards more physiological testing conditions and will perfectly complement our organotypic microtissue model portfolio 3D InSight™”, says Dr. Jens Kelm, Head of Product Management and Co-Founder of InSphero.

More information on the project is available at www.insphero.com/boc

InSphero contact

Dr. David Fluri, Project Coordinator and Senior Researcher, phone +41 44 5150494, david.fluri@insphero.com

Manuela Vujevic, Head of Marketing Communications, phone +41 44 5150490, manuela.vujevic@insphero.com

About InSphero

InSphero is a leading supplier of organotypic, biological in vitro 3D microtissues for highly predictive drug testing. The company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, currently counts 7 of the top ten global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies as customers, and is helping them implement the company’s patent-pending microtissue technology in their development work-flow. The spin-off company of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and the University Zurich was recognized for its scientific and commercial achievements with a number of national and international awards and is also certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard for its Quality Management System.

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02.07.2012New 3D InSight™ Human Liver Microtissues make it much easier to screen pharmaceutical compounds for repeat-dose and inflammation-related toxic effects

Zurich, Switzerland, 2. July 2012 – Swiss-based InSphero announced today the launch of 3D InSight™ Human Liver Microtissues for more efficient in-vitro drug screening. A co-culture model, delivered ready for use in established 2D screening workflows, 3D InSight™ Human Liver Microtissues offer more than 5× longer lifetime than conventional liver models as well as the option of screening for inflammation-related toxicity. PDF version

3D liver models are often difficult to adapt for screening purposes by pharmaceutical toxicology laboratories or are associated with very high costs, long delivery times and complex handling and assay procedures. InSphero’s 3D InSight™ Human Liver Microtissue spheroids provide an easy-to-implement 3D liver co-culture model in a convenient 96-well format at affordable cost. No new instruments and no changes to workflow or readouts are required.

InSphero uses its patent-pending formation technology for 3D microtissues to mimic the natural cell composition of the human liver: these co-culture systems include not only primary hepatocytes but also macrophages such as Kupffer cells. This is the first time that reliable and automatically produced microtissues can detect even rare toxicological effects such as inflammation-mediated toxicity.

"Since 3D InSight™ Human Liver Microtissues are based on cryopreserved hepatocytes and macrophages, different donor products can be delivered over years to assure continuity in drug-discovery programs”, says Dr. Simon Messner, Product Manager at InSphero.

With the new product launch, InSphero extends its existing portfolio of 3D HepG2 and 3D Rat Liver Microtissues to include toxicological assessment on a sophisticated organotypic human model. "Our team worked closely together with global pharma companies for two years to refine this product into an excellent and robust tool for drug-discovery and development groups", says Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of InSphero.

The new 3D InSight™ Human Liver Microtissues are available from today. Ordering information, technical details and information about our introductory offer can be obtained at sales@insphero.com or at www.insphero.com/humanliver.

InSphero contact

Dr. Simon Messner, Product Manager Toxicology, phone +41 44 5150494, simon.messner@insphero.com

Manuela Vujevic, Head of Marketing Communications, phone +41 44 5150490, manuela.vujevic@insphero.com

About InSphero

InSphero is a leading supplier of organotypic, biological in-vitro 3D microtissues for highly predictive drug testing. The company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, currently counts 7 of the top ten global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies as customers, and is helping them implement the company’s patent-pending microtissue technology in their development work-flow. The spin-off company of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and the University Zurich was recognized for its scientific and commercial achievements with a number of national and international awards and is also certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard for its Quality Management System.

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