Under terms of the agreement, Charles River Laboratories will be able to provide its clients with the use of Deciphex’s flagship product.
Contract research organization Charles River Laboratories partnered with Ireland-based Deciphex to provide that company’s digital pathology software-as-a-service platform to its clients.
Under terms of the agreement, Charles River Laboratories will be able to provide its clients with the use of Deciphex’s flagship product. That product, Patholytix Preclinical enabled the development of a streamlined workflow that allows pathologists to generate primary diagnostic or peer review results from their computer workstation faster than would be possible either with traditional microscopy processes or with stand-alone digital pathology software, the companies said. Charles River is the only CRO that will be able to distribute Patholytix Preclinical to its clients. Financial terms of the deal were not provided.
By combining ergonomic digital pathology workflows with artificial intelligence, Deciphex’s Patholytix Preclinical platform can help maximize pathologist productivity and deliver quality data to clients faster, Charles River said. Pathology is typically regarded as a diagnostically complex, process-heavy discipline. The use of digital has high potential for delivering great productivity enhancement, however, that potential has yet to be fully realized, Charles River added. By combining Deciphex’s unique digital pathology solutions with Charles River’s streamlined integrated drug discovery and development portfolio, Charles River clients will have access to an increasingly efficient, best-in-class platform, the company predicted.
“Our pathologists are the best in the industry—and in 2019, they examined over 4 million pathology slides. By providing them with the Deciphex solutions, we are giving them access to innovative tools that will provide valuable insights to clients earlier in the analysis phase,” Birgit Girshick, head of Discovery & Safety Assessment, Biologics Testing Solutions, and Avian Vaccine Services at Charles River said in a statement.
In addition to Charles River providing the Deciphex platform to its clients, the two companies will work together to co-develop “deep learning-enabled tools” that can support accelerated pathology analytics.
Donal O’Shea, founder and chief executive officer of Deciphex, touted Charles River as having the most robust preclinical pathology program in the industry
“By partnering with their team, the use of the Deciphex technology will provide an incredible opportunity to positively influence the outcome of a significant component of the industry’s preclinical pathological samples,” O’Shea said in a statement.
For Charles River, the deal with Deciphex follows the signing of a multi-year drug discovery deal with Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Under that deal, Charles River will help develop drug candidates across Takeda’s four therapeutic areas—oncology, gastroenterology, neuroscience and rare disease. Once those candidates have been identified, Takeda will begin to develop the assets.
