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Harnessing human skin models for drug development
23 September 2020
News
Pascal Descargues, CEO at Genoskin explains how Genoskin’s human skin models are created, discusses how these models can impact the drug development process and elaborates on how they are helping to develop therapeutic and vaccine strategies against COVID-19.
In the US, animal testing conducted by pharma companies is legal and required by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before a new therapy can advance to human clinical trials and ultimately receive approval. However, six US states and the entire EU have banned animal testing for cosmetic use. The Environmental Protection Agency said by 2025 it will cut funding for mammalian experiments in half and that it will eliminate all mammal testing for the approval of new chemicals by 2035.
Our mission is to demonstrate that human skin models are more accurate, predictive and ethical compared with animal models.
Pascal Descargues, CEO at Genoskin
Genoskin is offering pharma and cosmetic industries a safe, accurate, sustainable and accessible standardized living human skin platform that can be used as an alternative to animal testing, or in conjunction with it. "Our ex vivo (living human skin) technology is the only living human skin platform on the market", Pascal Descargues, CEO at Genoskin, said. "With this technology, we can test the effects of drugs in the skin (pharmacodynamics) and investigate how the skin can also affect the drug (pharmacokinetics). Our mission is to demonstrate that human skin models are more accurate, predictive and ethical compared with animal models". Pharma and cosmetics industries as well as research institutes are beginning to realize that animal testing is an insufficient predictor of drug safety and/or efficacy in humans. Additionally, animal testing is often cruel and inhumane.
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