On May 7, 2025 ViVerita Therapeutics ("ViVerita"), a US-based next-generation precision oncology company, reported a strategic research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim aimed at accelerating the discovery and validation of novel therapeutic targets (Press release, ViVerita Therapeutics, MAY 7, 2025, View Source [SID1234652667]). Under the terms of this collaboration, ViVerita will leverage its industry-leading in vivo CRISPR-based discovery platform to evaluate a curated set of putative targets identified by Boehringer Ingelheim, assessing their functions under physiologically relevant conditions.
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Cancer continues to be one of the leading challenges in medicine responsible for one in six deaths globally and treatment options for many cancers remain limited. One of the reasons is that drug discovery efforts are focusing on a limited number of known drug targets. In the collaboration with ViVerita, Boehringer Ingelheim aims to change this and pave the way to novel treatments for people living with cancer.
Cancer target identification has traditionally relied on studying cell lines grown in vitro. While this approach is widely adopted and has contributed to numerous important discoveries, it also has relevant shortcomings, primarily due to the inability of the in vitro systems to faithfully model key physiological conditions present in the tumor microenvironment. Conversely, many putative targets identified in vitro do not validate in vivo.
"The ViVerita platform uniquely combines transformative in vivo high-throughput genetic screening technologies with faithful disease models. It will empower the discovery of cancer driver pathway-specific targets that have so-far been challenging to address. It also enables high-throughput validation of putative targets discovered using other approaches under physiological conditions," said Xuewen Pan, Co-Founder, President and CEO of ViVerita Therapeutics. "We are very excited to work with Boehringer Ingelheim, a leader in innovative oncology research and drug development, to discover new therapies to benefit cancer patients."
The collaboration with ViVerita aligns with Boehringer Ingelheim’s strategy to identify and validate novel, clinically relevant drivers of tumors to develop innovative first-in-class treatment options for patients in need.