Leuven, Belgium and Darmstadt, Germany, May 20, 2025 – Merck, a leading science and technology company, and imec, a world-leading research hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, have announced a strategic partnership to develop a disruptive MicroPhysiological Systems (MPS) platform that could fundamentally transform drug discovery and development processes.
The collaboration, announced today at ITF World 2025, aims to improve the efficiency of drug discovery by increasing the predictive validity of preclinical models while progressively reducing reliance on animal testing – addressing a critical need in pharmaceutical research.
Next-Generation Preclinical Testing Platform
The partnership will integrate cutting-edge organoid biology models with advanced semiconductor hardware, incorporating biosensing and microfluidic capabilities. This first-of-its-kind co-development program is designed to be validated for ease-of-use in Merck's Healthcare laboratory setting and globally supported by Merck's Life Science business unit.
"Adequate preclinical models require biological relevance and the ability to generate rich and diverse data sets at high throughput—something that no current model can provide," said Paru Deshpande, Vice President R&D at imec. "At imec, we are building a unique chip technology to fill this data gap."
The platform's key innovation lies in its highly adaptable modular design, which facilitates seamless expansion from single to multi-organ configurations. This approach will allow scientists to obtain time-relevant insights ranging from individual organ health to multi-organ connected systems, potentially revolutionizing how researchers understand drug interactions within the human body.
Enhanced Data Collection and Standardization
A distinguishing feature of the new MPS platform is its integration of state-of-the-art biosensors, enabling in situ, label-free measurements for better-quality data collection. These sensors will provide increased cell culture control and reproducibility, leading to more reliable predictions and real-time identification of human organ responses to drug and chemical stimuli.
The technology has broad applications in pre-clinical safety, toxicity studies, and Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK), addressing key challenges in the drug development pipeline.
Steven Johnston, Vice President and Head of Technology Enablement at Merck, highlighted the transformative potential: "By integrating Merck's industry-leading induced pluripotent stem cells and patient-derived organoids portfolio with the joint disruptive hardware platform that has an unprecedented number of biosensors, we're creating a connected in-vitro and in-silico pipeline capable of generating critically-needed high-quality biological training data."
The standardized building blocks underpinning this technology are expected to enable more comparable and reproducible results across the pharmaceutical industry, potentially accelerating drug development timelines and reducing costs.
AI Integration and Industry Collaboration
The platform is designed with artificial intelligence applications in mind. When coupled with AI-driven drug discovery, this system creates a closed-loop operating model that could significantly improve data translatability to humans and speed the discovery of new drug candidates.
"When coupled with AI-driven drug discovery, this closed-loop operating model will greatly improve data translatability to humans, speed discovery of new drug candidates, and enable researchers to more closely simulate the human body than ever before," Johnston added.
Both Merck and imec have extended an invitation to other biotech and pharmaceutical companies to join this collaborative effort, recognizing that industry-wide adoption could maximize the platform's impact on drug development.
Potential Impact on Drug Development
The pharmaceutical industry has long struggled with the limitations of current preclinical models, which often fail to accurately predict how drugs will behave in humans. This collaboration directly addresses this challenge by creating more physiologically relevant testing environments.
By providing researchers with tools to more accurately simulate human biological responses, the MPS platform could potentially reduce late-stage clinical trial failures, which remain one of the most costly aspects of drug development. The technology may also contribute to the growing movement toward reducing animal testing in pharmaceutical research.
As the collaboration progresses, the partners aim to establish a new standard for preclinical testing that could bring safer, more effective treatments to patients faster than current methodologies allow.
