Quris is a startup founded in 2020 to develop alternatives to animal testing in medical research. Founded by two entrepreneurs, the firm has seen great success following its investment from SoftBank, enabling it to revolutionise the animal testing industry.
Its mission to develop alternative testing methods can revolutionise laboratory animal testing and has the potential to revolutionise the medical industry.
Let’s explore the mission of Quris, innovative technology, and potential for ending animal testing in research.
SoftBank Invests in Quris, Which Developed An Alternative to Animal Testing
Quris is a biotech company that has developed a technology to replace animal testing with alternative methods, developed in collaboration with Kyoto University. The technology uses genetic engineering to identify how chemicals or drugs affect human cells. This can give quicker and more reliable results than traditional animal testing while reducing the resources and research time needed to find new treatments, drugs, and products.
Quris has recently accepted investment from SoftBank Group Corp, which will help fund the development of Quris’ technologies and provide access to major global markets for its products. Quris’ mission is to stop animal testing by offering high-quality alternatives instead, providing an ethically sound solution for research and commercial purposes.
The core mission of Quris is ‘to develop safe products by replacing current tests on animals with laboratory systems that use molecular biology and chemistry instead”. By applying this method to all areas of biotechnology, Quris aims not only to create ethical solutions but also possibilities for discovering new phenomena related to safety assessment and food components that could not be found previously in animal models.
SoftBank’s investment in Quris
SoftBank recently made a significant investment in Quris—a technology company based in Japan which has developed an alternative to animal testing that is more accurate and effective. SoftBank’s investment will be used to help Quris fulfil their mission of eliminating the use of animals in both medical and cosmetic research.
Quris’ technology replicates human skin tissue and organs on a microscopic level, allowing for richer and more accurate testing results than ever possible with animal testing. This development promises to revolutionise research on health-care products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace materials and more. This development saves the lives of countless animals that would have been used for testing and opens up possibilities for faster, more accurate results tailored to specific needs.
Thanks to SoftBank’s investment, Quris can now move forward with their mission of replacing animal testing across industries. This major push could mean a brighter future for animals and researchers who can take advantage of this technology’s higher levels of accuracy when formulating new products with greater effectiveness than before.
Quris’ Mission
Quris, the Japanese startup, has made a splash in the venture capital world in the past few years. Founded in 2018, they have successfully developed an alternative to animal testing that fulfils its purpose without utilising traditional animal testing methods. Recently, the company has received its biggest investment yet from SoftBank.
Let’s take a closer look at Quris’ mission.
Overview of the mission
Quris is a biotechnology company that was founded with the mission of eliminating animal testing. The founders recognized that while finding cures for diseases is incredibly important, animal testing can harm animals and may not accurately model human conditions. Therefore, they aim to develop technologies and methodologies that will allow alternative methods of testing therapeutic efficacy in drugs or devices related to medicine and healthcare without harming animals.
Quris has developed an alternative technology to the traditional animal testing method called ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion) ToleraBall, which accurately simulates human physiology without compromising safety or efficacy. This revolutionary technology has been widely acclaimed by experts worldwide as it offers many advantages over traditional animal research methods.
Quris has secured a $50 million investment from SoftBank for its groundbreaking mission. The funds will go toward furthering Quris’ technology development efforts and introducing their new solutions to healthcare departments of major companies worldwide. By investing in Quris’ mission-driven approach and cutting-edge technology, SoftBank is helping move us closer to ending animal testing globally.
The technology behind their mission
Quris is a tech startup that uses in silico technology to improve the safety testing of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, reduce animal testing and advocate for the 3Rs – replacing, reducing and refining animal use. The company was founded by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who understood that traditional animal testing methods are limited in accuracy, expensive and time consuming.
The technology developed at Quris seeks to bridge the gap between animal tests and alternatives such as computational models and human cell-based tests. Quris combines machine learning, physical modelling, biochemistry data analysis and artificial intelligence to provide a better alternative to animal testing while replicating the same level of accuracy without the need for experimental data from animals.
This technology aims to model organ-specific physiological processes in mammals like skin absorption, metabolism or toxicity without having to test on live animals. The models allow studies across all major organs ready for use in preclinical research and product safety assessment in many industries including consumer care products like skin care, personal hygiene products or nutraceuticals; but also agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals, medical devices, drugs and food additives.
Quris’s mission aligns with today’s trend toward more ethical practices throughout different industries demanding non-animal approaches for product safety assessment. Thus it is not surprising that SoftBank invested in this startup striving towards global sustainability by ending any form of animal cruelty involuntarily created by our current practices affected by ignorance or lack of empathy towards other forms of life on our planet.
Benefits of Quris
Quris is a Japanese biotechnology startup dedicated to finding alternatives to animal testing for medical and cosmetic industries. Recently, SoftBank announced that it has invested in the company, giving Quris a huge financial boost.
This article will examine the benefits Quris offers to the world and its mission to end animal testing.
Benefits to the environment
Quris is a biotech startup developing safer and more reliable alternatives for animal testing in the research of new drugs and medical treatments. The founding team of scientists and entrepreneurs are committed to ethically, morally, and environmentally reducing animal testing. On April 5th, SoftBank announced their $120 million investment into Quris to spread innovations in science-based technologies that can replace animals in scientific experiments where they suffice. Qatar said, “This partnership also supports our mission to drive ethical sourcing across SoftBank’s investments, and we’re proud of this step towards ending animal testing.”
Quri’s advancements include a proprietary technology which utilises patient cells combined with artificial intelligence (AI) simulations which helps develop new drug therapies faster, more accurately, and more sustainably than traditional clinical trials involving animals. This significantly benefits the environment as the production processes become faster, more efficient and cheaper than laboratory research involving animal testing.
The successful development of these alternatives reduces animal cruelty. It shields us from ecological damage from all the resources that go into using laboratory animals such as feed, bedding materials and protective clothing for workers involved in these processes. In addition, animal- test substitutes developed by Quris eventually eliminate time consuming processes like breeding generations of animals to be tested against newly developed drugs or substances before releasing them into production markets thus further reducing waste from additional resources invested over time.
Benefits to animal welfare
Quris is a pioneering technology company working to end animal testing in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, biotechnical, and chemical industries. Their mission is to provide sophisticated testing technologies designed to accurately assess products’ safety, efficacy and quality while eliminating the need for animal testing.
These technological advances can help ensure a more humane industry standard and reduce animal suffering.
Quris developed an alternative to animal testing called VisoToxTM, which uses cell cultures derived from the corneal membranes of rabbits and humans to predict how substances react with eye tissue. VisoToxTM accelerates decision making during manufacturing processes and validates new formulas more quickly than current animal testing methods. The advantage of using this high-speed model over traditional animal trials is that it more accurately predicts the toxicity threat associated with certain chemicals before they enter production processes. Not only does this eliminate fear of harm for animals, but it also provides more accurate results that often precede those predicted in traditional models, allowing for production improvements even before products reach market shelves.
In 2020 SoftBank Vision Fund1 (“Soft-Bank”), a leading technology investor, made a strategic investmentQuris – the first Israeli company to join SoftBank’s impressive portfolio of life science investments – further validating Quris mission and technology platform. With this additional financial backing Quris has since expanded their solutions set and boosted their ability to adopt innovative R&D strategies and scale commercialization initiatives across various markets worldwide – ultimately improving product safety while accelerating development cycles and reducing resource costs. This increased ability will further lead to greater protection for animals worldwide through their cutting edge replacement solutions that improve accuracy while increasing speed compared with traditional techniques such as live-animal tests or other inaccurate methods relying on extrapolation or interpretation techniques like High Throughput Screening (HTS).
Challenges Faced by Quris
Quris is a technology-driven start-up focused on developing advanced testing methods for the cosmetic and personal care industry that do not involve animal testing. However, the company has faced several challenges in developing alternative methods using its innovative technology, from increased costs to the lack of regulatory understanding.
In this article, we will look at the challenges that Quris has faced in its mission to end animal testing.
Regulatory challenges
Quris, a start-up founded by Dr. Yves Lécuyer and developed with the support of SoftBank Investment Advisers and other investors, aims to end animal testing for cosmetics and household products. However, despite the benefits of validation without animal experimentation offered by technologies such as high throughput digital cell culture (HTC) systems, Quris’s customers face multiple regulatory challenges that prevent them from bringing their product to market.
The FDA (in the US) requires all cosmetic products to meet safety standards before they can be marketed but current regulations enforce testing on animals in certain cases. Similarly, EU regulations ‒ often considered the gold standard in approved testing alternatives ‒ drastically limit which alternatives are feasible for use in industrial settings. Finally, requirements vary greatly across different countries; depending on where a company’s product is being sold they may need to follow different laws. Companies must also spend considerable resources developing validation studies and collecting data on their products (such as conducting patch tests), which can delay their launch significantly.
These challenges are compounded by an often complex set of guidelines set out by different regulatory bodies for companies looking to use validated alternatives such as HDL. This means that even companies with an ethical outlook have difficulty transitioning away from animal experimentation if they wish to bring their products to market quickly or have them accepted globally. Despite this, Quris has progressed with several clients giving validations using HTC systems by international standards such as ISO/EN 15124:2020 and EC2019/1383 (part III).
Challenges from competitors
Quris, a company founded by Ryo Koyama, Takuya Sogo and Kensuke Hattori, aims to end animal testing worldwide through advanced in vitro (i.e. cell culture-based) technologies. They specialise in creating alternative tests that reduce animals’ need to test new drugs or products.
Despite their ambitious mission and robust technological capabilities, Quris has faced increasing competition from well-funded laboratory service providers who market animal testing as a viable option for the scientific community. In addition to competing on price points, these competitors have argued against responding to international demands for ethical research practices and animal protection policies because they create additional overhead costs. This has made it difficult for Quris to convince customers of the value of their alternative technologies.
In addition to competition, Quris also faces challenges with acquiring long-term contracts with pharmaceutical companies that require clear statements of compliance with relevant laws and regulations governing drug development. Improving sustainability is also a priority given their reliance on external suppliers – such as cell lines – which continuously require certification and vetting processes to ensure quality control when validating test results. Furthermore, slow adoption rates due to lack of education regarding alternatives hindered the rise of cell culture-based research methodologies offered by Quris until recently when SoftBank invested in the company earlier this year (2020).
