Viva Biotech Launches Comprehensive Pharmacology Platform

Viva Biotech has unveiled its integrated pharmacology platform aimed at enhancing drug development processes, particularly in the area of Drug Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics (PKPD). This announcement, made on December 29, 2025, marks a significant advancement in the company’s capabilities, as it responds to the evolving needs of drug discovery across diverse therapeutic modalities. The platform supports a range of programs from in vitro ADME assays to in vivo pharmacokinetic and efficacy studies.

During the latest session of the Viva BioInsights webinar series, titled “Adventures in DMPK,” Dr. Justin Cui, Vice President of Pharmacology at Viva Biotech, presented the platform’s extensive capabilities. He highlighted that small molecules, PROTACs, and peptides share a fundamental ADME/PK logic, which includes physicochemical profiling and metabolic stability assessments. These assessments utilize various methods such as microsomes, hepatocytes, and whole blood/plasma analyses, along with permeability and transport studies.

A key differentiator for Viva Biotech lies in its decision-making framework. According to Dr. Cui, the platform employs exposure metrics, such as Area Under the Curve (AUC) and half-life, to facilitate early compound triage. This systematic approach allows for the deprioritization of compounds that do not meet internal thresholds, ultimately streamlining the drug development process.

Innovative Strategies for Diverse Modalities

Viva Biotech’s platform extends its support to peptide programs through cross-species pharmacokinetic design. This includes multiple administration routes, such as subcutaneous, intravenous, and intramuscular, along with comprehensive metabolite profiling in various biological matrices. The use of WinNonlin-based analysis ensures consistency across different modalities, allowing for effective comparison of pharmacokinetic behaviors between peptide and small-molecule programs.

The company has also developed a specialized engineered hFcRn/B2M–MDCK Transwell system to study antibody transcytosis. This innovative assay provides a cell-based readout of FcRn-mediated transport, enabling time- and dose-dependent measurements. The data presented during the webinar demonstrated a strong correlation between these cell-based transcytosis readouts and published clinical antibody half-life data, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of more than 0.84. This validation underscores the assay’s potential for early candidate ranking prior to in vivo studies.

In addition to pharmacokinetics, the webinar emphasized the importance of mechanistic bioassays in making DMPK decisions more actionable. Viva Biotech’s immunology portfolio includes various in vitro assays for immune cell activation and differentiation, utilizing advanced technologies such as multi-color flow cytometry and multiplex cytokine readouts.

Building on a Decade of Experience

Viva Biotech brings over a decade of expertise in early drug discovery, with a comprehensive DMPK and pharmacology framework that has been bolstered through facility expansion and deeper integration of antibody pharmacokinetics with disease-focused studies. This extensive background has equipped the company to support drug development across various therapeutic areas, including oncology, autoimmune diseases, and metabolic disorders.

Dr. Cui articulated that Viva Biotech has created a comprehensive DMPK platform that integrates multiple drug modalities into a one-stop service model. This model connects structure-based discovery with ADME, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, toxicology, and Investigational New Drug (IND) filing processes. By doing so, it enables more confident and data-driven development decisions throughout the preclinical stage.

For those interested in exploring Viva Biotech’s Pharmacology and DMPK services, further information is available on the company’s website at www.vivabiotech.com/cro/pharmacologydmpk. The launch of this platform signifies a pivotal moment for the company, aligning its services with the increasing demands of the pharmaceutical industry for integrated, effective, and efficient drug development solutions.