INVENesis enters the animal health market with first customers

Parasites, especially nematodes (or roundworms), are big threats to both livestock and pets. If untreated, they could increase rapidly, causing various health problems, including anemia, rapid weight loss, and death. Although effective antiparasitic drugs exist, parasites are becoming increasingly resistant due to patchy compliance with treatment protocols.

After three years of joint Research and Development, with funding from the economic development agency of Neuchâtel Canton and Innosuisse, medtech startup INVENesis Sàrl has unveiled its innovative testing system that will speed the development of antiparasitic drugs. Saint Blaise (NE)-based startup teamed up with France-based INRAE Research Institute and CSEM to develop its device employing technology from INRAE that was initially intended for university research.

The new system allows scientists to rapidly and accurately test the efficacy of different compounds directly on roundworms while ensuring low drug development costs. It offers a unique approach to screening drug candidates based on a highly selective design process that brings the results of in vitro experiments much closer to those of in vivo ones – marking a major step forward from existing procedures. CSEM engineers developed a design for the system that would force the worms to swim in a single direction.

A robot dispenses roundworms on microplates (see image) for motility trap assays. The roundworms are directed through a set path while scientists use a viewing system and data-processing applications to evaluate how different compounds affect the worms’ motility – an important indicator of drug efficacy. Each microplate measures 15 x 20 cm and contains 96 wells, for a total of 20,000 roundworms per plate. 

“Roundworms have to keep swimming to stay alive in animals’ digestive tracts,” says Lucien Rufener, CEO of INVENesis. “But with most methods currently used to develop dewormers, the roundworms are inactive and just sit at the bottom of the test plate.” The INVENesis system, on the other hand, prompts the worms to swim from one point to another. “That lets scientists observe how a drug candidate affects the way the parasite moves and immediately eliminate those that wouldn’t be effective inside an animal.”

With the launch of their new solution, INVENsis has also secured major contracts for its invention with key players in the animal health industry.

Growing team and ready to conquer the animal health market
INVENesis was founded in 2017 by former employees of Novartis’ animal-health R&D center who drew on their in-depth industry knowledge and solid address book to continue their research efforts. The startup provides R&D services for drug discovery to industrial partners in the Animal Health, Plant Protection (Crop) and Pharmaceutical fields as well as Academia. Today, it has around a dozen employees, a subsidiary in France, and an international customer base that ranges from startups to multinationals and research institutes. The new system, developed in association with INRAE and CSEM, is now mature and stands to be a flagship product that will conquer the global animal health market.

(Press release/RAN)
Photo: CSEM