May 22, 2025
DURHAM, NC – May 22, 2025: ScitoVation has been awarded a $2.04 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of the National Institutes of Health. The funding, distributed in $1 million increments over two years, will support the commercialization of ScitoVation’s DRIIVE platform (“Developmental and Reproductive In vitro to In Vivo Extrapolation”), an innovative technology that enhances predictive toxicology and supports the development of safer, more effective products across multiple industries.
This award follows a successful Phase I project, during which ScitoVation developed an alpha version of the DRIIVE platform which is a powerful in silico and in vitro modeling tool designed to estimate pharmacokinetics during pregnancy and human-equivalent exposures linked to adverse outcomes in developmental toxicity assays.
“Our DRIIVE platform represents a transformative approach to pregnancy safety assessment by converting in vitro developmental assays into meaningful human exposure contexts,” explained Marjory Moreau, PhD, Principal Investigator. “This award enables us to connect fundamental research with practical regulatory applications, advancing both the reduction of animal testing and the enhancement of public health protections.”
“Receiving this highly competitive SBIR Phase II award is a testament to the scientific innovation and real-world impact of our work,” said Jean Orelien, DrPH, MStat, CEO of ScitoVation. “DRIIVE represents a transformative advancement in predictive toxicology and supports our mission to improve public health through next-generation, human-relevant testing strategies.”
DRIIVE offers significant benefits to key stakeholders, including:
- Pharmaceutical, chemical, and consumer goods developers: Accelerates the design of safer and more effective compounds by modeling exposures relevant to sensitive populations, such as pregnant individuals.
- Regulatory agencies and policymakers: Provides a scientifically sound, efficient approach for predicting reproductive toxicity in humans.
- Animal welfare advocates and laboratory scientists: Enables smarter study design and has the potential to reduce the number of animals used in safety testing.
This Phase II funding advances ScitoVation’s commitment to non-animal methods (NAMs), regulatory science innovation, and translational tools that bridge in vitro results with real-world exposure estimates.
The project officially began on May 5, 2025. For more information about DRIIVE or to explore potential collaborations, contact Marjory Moreau at mmoreau@scitovation.com
Funding Acknowledgment:
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 2R44ES035657. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
About ScitoVation
ScitoVation is a leader in applying New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to help clients assess the safety of compounds. With a deep focus on computational toxicology, the company empowers researchers and regulators to make more informed decisions, accelerating innovation in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
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