Simulations Plus, Inc., a leading provider of modeling and simulation software and services for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy, announced that the U.S. FDA has renewed its licenses to the DILIsym ® software platform, the flagship quantitative systems toxicology (QST) software for predicting and investigating drug-induced liver injury (DILI). The one-year renewal provides continued access to DILIsym software for authorized FDA employees across all FDA divisions.
Dr. Paul B. Watkins , chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the DILI-sim Initiative, commented, “The FDA’s renewal of these licenses endorses the value of DILIsym software in both predicting liver safety liabilities and defining the underlying mechanisms, which are critical to evaluating risk. The recent signing of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 by President Biden, which encourages the FDA to limit animal use in drug development, should be a positive catalyst for greater utilization of DILIsym software in drug development. In my role as Chair of the SAB, I am very excited about the direction of the public-private partnership that is guiding further development of the DILIsym platform that will benefit many key stakeholders.”
Dr. Brett A. Howell , President of the DILIsym Services division at Simulations Plus, added, “Given the effect of rising costs on providing vital healthcare, the use of novel simulation technologies to improve the efficiency of drug development is more critical than ever. An important first step is ensuring that regulatory agencies have the most advanced technology tools to fulfill their essential mission. We are delighted the FDA has opted to renew once again and will continue using DILIsym and other Simulations Plus tools to enable reviews and enhance regulatory science.”
DILIsym software results support crucial drug development decisions by predicting potential DILI risk of new drug candidates. The modeling also identifies the biochemical events that lead to DILI caused by a drug and can thereby predict certain subgroups of patients at increased risk for DILI from that drug. The information from DILIsym modeling serves to help guide go/no-go decisions on major drug development projects, potentially avoiding the disastrous financial effects of failed clinical trials, or better, providing assurances that DILI will not be an insurmountable obstacle to regulatory approval. For the past 13 years, DILIsym Services, a division of Simulations Plus, has coordinated the DILI-sim Initiative, which is a public-private partnership that has guided development of the DILIsym software package. DILIsym is available to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries for direct use to predict and understand liabilities via membership in the DILI-sim Initiative consortium and/or commercial licenses. The DILIsym Services division also routinely uses DILIsym for comprehensive consulting services on safety-related issues.
