Major news broke in the iPSC sector last week when Ncardia (Cologne, Germany) and Nanion Technologies (Munich, Germany) signed a joint marketing and sales promotion agreement. Under the terms of partnership, customers of the companies will get access to high-performance instrument platforms from Nanion, coupled with Ncardia’s portfolio of hiPSC-derived cardiac cell types and assay services.
For readers not yet familiar with Nanion, it is a global provider of instrumentation for ion channel drug discovery and screening based in Munich, Germany. It is a leading supplier of automated patch clamp (APC) electrophysiology systems with throughput capabilities ranging from a single cell up to fully automated high throughput screening (HTS) instruments recording from 768 cells simultaneously.
Terms of the Joint Marketing & Sales Promotion Agreement
Under the terms of the marketing and sales promotion agreement executed between Ncardia and Nanion Technologies on September 19, 2018, customers of the companies will receive free initial training on site, as well as comprehensive customer support from both Nanion (for CardioExcyte 96 and CardioExcyte 96 SOL optical stimulation add-on) and Ncardia (for cryopreserved cardiomyocytes or pre-plated iPSC-derived CardioPlate™).
Specifically, Nanion and Ncardia will offer a menu of packages to address a spectrum of throughput requirements and budgets. These packages will include state-of-the-art cell monitoring instrumentation, such as:
- Nanion’s CardioExcyte 96 instrument with a SOL optical stimulation add-on option
- A supply of Ncardia’s iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes – either frozen or delivered via the ‘ready-to-use’ CardioPlate™
As a result of this partnership, Ncardia and Nanion are positioned to co-develop easier and more efficient scientific tools to support research and clinical development.
Importance of the Ncardia and Nanion Partnership
The strategic importance of the Ncardia and Nanion partnership is that it will provide scientists working within cardiovascular and neural safety and efficacy projects easier access to stem cell applications that have the potential to accelerate drug discovery and development.
As stated by Dr. Stefan Braam, CEO of Ncardia, “Producing stem cell-derived models is only half the battle: the implementation of these cells in such informative, high-quality instrumentation that Nanion provides is really what drives the value of these technologies for R&D purposes.”
Niels Fertig, Founder and CEO of Nanion Technologies GmbH, also expressed excitement about the partnership, stating: “The CardioExcyte 96 is a dual readout system, recording both contractility and electrophysiology of intact cardiomyocyte networks. The system is ideal for short and long-term cell monitoring and is therefore very well-matched not only for basic research but for safety and toxicity testing, as successfully shown in the phase II CiPA myocyte working group study, where Nanion took part. In Ncardia, Nanion sees a strong business partner, but also a partner in development and science as demonstrated through our joint pioneering efforts in developing optogenetic stimulation solutions.”
Global Strategy of Ncardia and Nanion Technologies
Over the past several years, Ncardia has entered into a number of strategic alliances that have positioned it to be a global leader for cardiac and neural applications of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Examples of these strategic partnerships include:
- In October 2017, Roche and Ncardia entered a broad licensing agreement whereby Roche and its affiliate companies gained access to key disease modeling patents from Ncardia.
- In November 2017, Ncardia and ACEA Biosciences (ACEA) established a global partnership to provide comprehensive solutions for cardiac drug discovery and cardiac safety assessment.
- In December 2017, Ncardia entered into a global non-exclusive IP licensing agreement with Evotec. Evotechas an industrialized iPSC infrastructure that represents one of the largest and most sophisticated iPSC platforms in the industry.
Nanion also has an impressive history. Founded in 2002, Nanion expanded its product range over the years to include in vitro systems for membrane pump and transporter recordings, bilayer recordings, and contractility measurements (impedance) from beating monolayers of cells, e.g. induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac myocytes (iPSC-CMs) and confluency measurements of hepatocytes for hepatotox screening using impedance.
To learn more about the co-marketing partnership between Ncardia and Nanion Technologies, view the agreement here:
Do you have questions about how you can access co-marketed products developed by Ncardia and Nanion Technologies? Ask them in the questions below.