Preclinical Contract Research Services

Leverage our in vivo CRO expertise to de-risk your drug discovery/development program while accelerating the path to demonstrating in vivo efficacy.

We pride ourselves on our ability to rapidly accommodate even the most difficult projects and deliver precise, unbiased, and timely results.

Take the first step in determining the safest and most appropriate concentrations for your drug candidates.

We provide drug efficacy studies in a variety of in vivo models, including multiple immunodeficient mouse strains and our SRG OncoRat®, a rat model with unsurpassed immunodeficiency and ease-of-use.

Our experience extends to humanized immune system (PBMC or CD34+) models as well as novel transgenic models that we engineer and validate for our clients.

Learn more about what makes us different.

Preclinical Drug Development Studies

Preclinical drug discovery and development aims to determine if a drug is ready for clinical trials through preclinical in vitro and in vivo safety assessments.

Target identification and validation often involve high-throughput screening as well as high content screening to determine if a target can be manipulated by the drug.

Toxicology Studies

We offer an array of toxicology services:

  • Single dose acute toxicity studies
  • Range finding or maximum tolerated dose studies
  • Repeat dose toxicity studies
 Toxicology laboratory testing program in mice

Pharmacokinetics or Pharmacodynamics

Our flexible services include serial blood and tissue/organ collection in both mice and rat models – combined with multiple routes of dosing, including oral gavage, IV, IP, and continuous infusion(s).

Our SRG rat enables serial tumor biopsies to study intra-tumor drug exposure (PD). Check out our white paper for more information.

Beyond Drug Efficacy Studies

Our additional endpoints include:

  • PK/PD sampling and analysis
  • Necropsy/Histopathology
  • Immune cell characterization by flow cytometry
  • Clinical chemistry / Hematology
  • Other biomarker screening and analysis
microscope for quantitative analysis of toxicity

Preclinical Oncology Services

Our passion is preclinical oncology and immuno-oncology studies, including syngeneic models and cell-derived and patient-derived cancer xenografts.

Oncology Services

We provide in vitro and in vivo oncology studies to leaders in industry and academia.

We have optimized numerous models in both mice and the SRG OncoRat

Check out our in vivo oncology page to learn more.

Efficacy drug testing in VCaP shows SARD (FAQ: selective androgen receptor degrader) UT-42 is highly efficacious
SRG rat lacks functionality of B-cells, T-cells, and NK cells making it highly immunodeficient.

The SRG OncoRat

The SRG OncoRat is highly immunodeficient, completely lacking circulating B-cells, T-cells, and NK-cells. It boasts high xenograft and PDX tumor engraftment rates and more uniform growth kinetics than seen in mice.

Its Sprague-Dawley background enables combined efficacy and in vivo lead optimization parameters to identify meaningful risks early and accelerate your preclinical program.

Xenograft vs. PDX

Researchers are often asking our scientific team about how to choose between using a cell line xenograft and a patient derived xenograft (PDX).  This article aims to summarize the pros and cons of each approach and allow you to identify which model type is the best fit for your drug development needs.

Most preclinical oncology drug efficacy studies are conducted in cell line xenografts because they are more consistent, characterized, and cost effective. However, some researchers believe that using a patient derived xenograft model could provide more translation data by preserving the original tumor complexity and heterogeneity.

Read more about which model might be right for your evaluating your therapeutic candidates.

lab testing of in vivo tumor growth used for Hera drug efficacy testing programs.

Take Your Discoveries From The Dish To Demonstrating In-Vivo Efficacy

Reach out to us to learn more about our preclinical CRO services for your drug development and toxicity research.

Choosing the Right Preclinical CRO

Finding the right partner for outsourcing your pharmacology, toxicology or drug efficacy studies is extremely important. As a non-GLP preclinical CRO, our specific strengths lie in early-stage drug development for small molecules, biologics, cell therapies, or gene therapies.

Hera currently has the capacity to immediately start your studies with no wait-times for our contract research services. The biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutes that we work with rely on our rapid execution of well-designed studies that produce high-quality data.

In order to advance your new drug through pre-IND GLP toxicology studies into the IND or regulatory process and finally clinical trials, it is essential to start on the right foot with a preclinical CRO that delivers high-quality data and flexible services. Our comprehensive toxicology contract laboratory services are focused on the non-GLP in vivo studies that are essential for drug screening in mice and rats. Our approach includes rigorous compliance with regulatory standards and Hera is actively pursuing further accreditations in order to provide highly accurate and reliable test results which allow clients to make informed decisions regarding the safety and efficacy of their compounds.

Our immunodeficient SRG rat has the versatility to allow for the combination of efficacy studies that require a xenograft/allograft of a tumor, tissue, or medical device as well as PK/PD or DMPK toxicity endpoints all in the preferred Sprague Dawley background.

Can’t find the right preclinical model? Let Hera engineer the perfect cell-line or transgenic animal model for evaluating your development candidate or therapeutic. From in vivo gene delivery to new surgical techniques- there is no problem that cannot be solved by our team of scientists.

Ready To Advance Your Research?

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