Champions Biotechnology Inc.'s preclinical screening technology uses xenografts that it creates by implanting primary human cancer tumors into immune-deficient mice. The tumor cells are never passaged in cell tissue culture and therefore maintain the fundamental genotypic features of the original cancer because the risk of mutations through successive generations in culture is eliminated. The company has signed preclinical screening deals with a number of partners and it's also building its own therapeutic pipeline.

"Treat diseases locally" is a mantra espoused by a growing number of companies but few as yet have actually mustered the means to do so. TARIS Biomedical believes it has what it takes to become a pioneer of minimally invasive drug delivery devices. Its first product offering will be a pretzel-shaped device the size of a paper clip that will release medication inside the bladder, initially as a treatment for interstitial cystitis.

Rhenovia Pharma SAS believes it can help companies looking to improve existing Alzheimer's disease therapies by using computational models of the brain to identify chemical combinations capable of positively impacting disease symptoms. The start-up aims to build a service-based business running its specialized "biosimulations" on compounds that other companies currently market, have in development or have previously rejected for lack of efficacy.