Invitrogen Acquires Manufacturer of Liver Cell Products

Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA, USA), a life-sciences firm, will pay US$57 million for CellzDirect (Durham, NC, USA), a firm specializing in hepatocyte-based cell products and related services, in order develop a reliable test for predicting a compound's effects on metabolism in the liver.

Testing for the potential drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is part of the U.S. Food and Drug Association's (FDA; Rockville, MD, USA) Critical Path Initiative, which guides drug development. DILI is the most frequent cause of acute liver failure in the United States and the most important reason for new drug application failures, drug withdrawals, and restrictions on use. Therefore, the market for a DILI test is huge.

Traditionally, drugs are tested in an artificial cell line that focuses on cloning and producing a single drug target. However, although this has been successful, there is a growing feeling within the industry that this approach is not enough.

Using complete, primary cells should more accurately reproduce the body's reaction to a specific drug, and also perhaps reduce the need for animal experiments. The key question with primary cells is, are the results reproducible? The cells come from donors, and therefore, they will not always be identical, unlike cell lines. The cells must be reset and recalibrated, for example, by use of reference compounds, before test results can be used.

Invitrogen already offers a number of complete cell systems, including primary cells, media, matrices, and growth factors and the addition of CellzDirect products will complement them.

"The purchase of CellzDirect follows our strategy of investing in high growth areas of the market, specifically specialty cell systems,” said Greg Lucier, Invitrogen's chairman and CEO.


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