About Virscio

The pace of life science discovery is accelerating.

Rapid advances in technology-enabled discovery and novel therapeutic approaches are bringing hope of new and individualized treatments for many unmet medical needs, but significant research and development challenges remain, including:

Inability of in vitro and lower species preclinical models to accurately predict human response to therapeutics engineered to treat human disease;
Limited access to sustainable, cost-effective, welfare-optimized nonhuman primate resources needed to de-risk advanced therapeutic strategies;
Lack of fully integrated therapeutic area R&D capabilities that enable the design and conduct of studies for capture and rigorous analysis of clinically relevant endpoints

Virscio has focused on solving these challenges by building a world-class team and translational research infrastructure designed to deliver higher value, lower cost research solutions to enable our new era of innovation.

As a specialized preclinical contract research organization (CRO) Virscio helps solve the time, cost, and development risk conundrum through globally unique, cost-effective, sustainable access to nonhuman primate research resources and companion in-life and tissue pharmacodynamic assays.

Pursuing a science-first focus, we are differentiated by our investment in technologies, models and innovation to create a durable value proposition aligned to solving persisting health challenges.

Focus on Areas of Highest Unmet Need
We work with sponsors, partners, and innovators that share our mission to help advance therapies for the world’s most challenging health problems. To most accurately predict clinical efficacy and safety profiles we actively develop, validate, and deploy disease and safety models.
Identify Strategies to Minimize Cost and Risk of Development
We leverage 30+ years of data in our primate test system and cost-effective access to this resource to inform thoughtful, value-add preclinical study designs that yield definitive, actionable outcomes to help sponsors accurately assess risk / return of expanded program investment.
Collaborate Early, and Often, to Enable Innovation and Success
We welcome opportunities to collaborate with sponsors in ways that advance their program while also enabling new and/or improved scientific methods, research models, and understanding of the target disease biology or toxicology.

Our Solution

We address translational risks by applying best understanding of human pathophysiology to inform the execution of non-GLP and GLP studies designed to evaluate delivery, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic, safety, and efficacy of candidate therapeutics.

Our solution represents a focused, multi-decade strategy to enable more efficient innovation, while elevating animal welfare and lowering the overall cost to successfully take a therapeutic program from concept to clinic.

As stewards of our unique biological resources, and as an AAALAC accredited, GLP-compliant organization, we maintain the very highest ethical and scientific standards to drive the best possible study designs, data analysis, and animal care and use. We embrace these responsibilities and are recognized internationally for this commitment.

	    Full integrated in vivo, histopathology, and molecular research services

MD and PhD Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) leading engagement, scientific strategy and protocol development to ensure study execution is aligned to development objectives

Dedicated IACUC, enabling thorough time efficient protocol review and approvals

Expedited initiation timelines, with flexibility to accommodate schedule changes

Skilled Study Directors with extensive NHP study execution experience

Matthew Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Scientific Officer

Virscio Co-founder, Matthew Lawrence is responsible for overseeing design and execution of Virscio’s preclinical studies and associated alignment of research capabilities to ensure efficient translation of sponsor programs to development objectives. Dr. Lawrence has over 35 years of experience in nonhuman primate research and over 20 years designing, executing and leading NIH and industry-funded R&D programs that leverage Virscio’s translational platform to de-risk therapeutic targets and candidates. Dr. Lawrence has been instrumental in the design and execution of preclinical programs for a wide range of academic groups, venture-backed start-ups, and publicly traded biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Lawrence received a BA in Biology and Geology from Harvard College, PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow, and MD from Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Lawrence completed his internship in medicine at the University of Hawaii and ophthalmology residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Matthew Lawrence, Ph.D. - Chief Executive Officer, CSO, Co-founder

Christopher Stanley

Co-founder, Chief Business Officer, Chief Financial Officer

Virscio Co-founder, Christopher is a life sciences executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in financing, building, operating and supporting companies developing and commercializing biomedical research innovations. Mr. Stanley oversees corporate strategy, business development, financing and investing activities associated with the development and commercialization of Virscio’s translational R&D platform. Under Mr. Stanley’s leadership, Virscio has designed and executed an integrated commercial, partnering, and financial plan that that has enabled significant, sustainable growth. Prior to co-founding Virscio, Mr. Stanley held positions at Accenture within the Corporate Transaction Services group where he focused on evaluating and structuring complex outsourcing, joint-venture, and equity investment transactions. Prior to Accenture, Mr. Stanley was an Analyst in the Global Markets Group at JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Stanley received his BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher Stanley, Chief Business Officer, CFO, Co-founder

Our Value Proposition

Whether you are an academic researcher, and venture-backed biotech, or a large multi-national pharmaceutical company, we recognize that therapeutic program value is created by clearly defining data needs, qualifying collaborators and CRO partners, designing program plans, and executing those plans efficiently and cost-effectively within investor, board, and management defined timelines to achieve program development and funding milestones. This positions for clinical success and the ultimate value of improved health outcomes.

As an organization purpose-built to support this innovation and value creation process, we bring the following value drivers to bear on Sponsor programs:

Scientific Engagement and Service Delivery Value Drivers

Focus on Clinical Translation

For programs directed toward IND approval, we efficiently execute globally accepted GLP primate toxicology, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic studies to provide a direct bridge from early pre-clinical and efficacy validation to clinical development.

Scientific Insights Informed by Historic Data

Our sponsors benefit from access to decades of preclinical and translation development experience and deep test system and historical baseline, control, and phenotype data that enable unique biological insights to accelerate and strengthen preclinical study design, execution and interpretation.

Optimized Translational Models

We develop and apply innovative, validated primate disease, pharmacodynamic and safety models and technologies that are designed to achieve more accurate and accelerated candidate selection to improve the odds of clinical success.

Transparent Communication & Timely Execution

From study design through execution and reporting, we prioritize transparent, seamless, secure communication with sponsors and partners to ensure high-quality, actionable scientific results, functioning as a virtual extension of your lab.

Commercial and Contracting Value Drivers

No cost / no risk study engagement process that results in a clear project / program strategy and funding needs
Study proposals that clearly link scientific strategy, scope and deliverables
Detailed line-item project budgets that enable efficient review and approval
Fixed scope / fixed price agreements, enabling clear, predictable forecasting of project spend against program budget

Improving clinical trial outcomes requires partnering with preclinical research organizations that are invested in ensuring your program is efficiently de-risked and positioned for regulatory approval. Virscio is committed to ensuring we are helping you ask, and answer, the right questions, at the right time, in the right test system.

CRO that has the ability to provide new and novel model development services in addition to basic standard nonhuman primate work.

I believe from a disease model perspective [they have] a unique niche. There are NO peers/competitors for reliable primate models for key diseases such as neurologic/ophthalmic.

Easy to work with and access to African green monkeys, a perfect model to do ophthalmology studies. Lead time to getting a project started is significantly reduced because they are onsite and easily available.

Not your typical recipe book CRO.

Premiere translational CRO.

The Council commends you and staff for providing and maintaining and exemplary program of laboratory animal care and use. - AAALAC International

Our Engagement Philosophy

Virscio’s PhD, DVM and/or MD Study Directors and highly trained technical team engage with leading academic research institutions, venture-backed start-ups, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies around the world to advance a diversity of therapeutic discovery and development programs.

From early proof-of-concept safety and efficacy evaluations through good laboratory practice (GLP)-compliant, investigative new drug (IND)-enabling studies, we approach each sponsor engagement with the commitment that the value creation process starts with developing a deep understanding of a sponsor’s therapeutic strategy, existing preclinical data and clinical objectives. From that foundation, we engage in the study design and program planning process with two guiding principles:

As an institution we focus on creating value for the innovative sponsors we serve, the supporting investors, and the patients in need.

As scientists and clinicians, we aim to design and execute the most efficient preclinical programs possible to definitively arrive at one of two scientific outcomes:

Confirm the therapeutic hypothesis is clinically tenable, providing a clear follow-on investment rationale and expedited path to clinic.

Disprove the therapeutic hypothesis, allowing for more efficient allocation of resources to more promising candidates or programs.

Engagement Modalities

Virscio seeks to align and engage with institutions that share our passion for advancing therapeutic products toward clinical success.

We offer engagement modalities designed to meet the varying scientific and commercial needs of our diverse sponsor base, ranging from the conduct of discrete pivotal studies to longer term program support. All engagements are predicated on defining required development needs and pursuing within the appropriate relationship to ensure that our unique translational platform drives clear sponsor program value, and ultimately, improved clinical outcomes through the advance of safer and more effective therapies.