21 August 2023
PXB-mouse: Overcoming species-to-species differences to accurately predict hepatotoxicity in therapeutic development
It is estimated that 40% of drug candidates have failed to make it to market because of toxicity.¹ One of the most common adverse drug reactions is drug-induced liver injury (DILI), whereby patients experience acute illness, often with symptoms similar to hepatitis and cholestasis. Today, DILI is the leading cause of drug candidate failure and post-market withdrawals.² The high incidence of DILI in clinical trials, and even post-market events, is partly due to the use of conventional animal models at preclinical stages. Conventional models are notoriously poor predictors of efficacy and toxicity in the liver, due to species-to-species variation. In contrast, the PXB-mouse® model, with its humanized liver, provides a highly predictive model of human physiology and human-specific hepatotoxicity, allowing for more accurate prediction of human outcomes, and, therefore, aiding the smooth progression of new therapeutics into the clinic.
