Toxys is a spin-off from Leiden University Medical Center. Our CEO Giel Hendriks and COO Remco Somers, then two scientists who developed ToxTracker, became the founders of our company. This is why it is no surprise that scientific excellence is still at the heart of Toxys. The photo shows the first Toxys exhibit at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology.

In 2015, Giel participated in BioBusiness Masterclass organized by HollandBIO. He and his team came up with the winning business plan that was used for the first investment round for Toxys. It was also an indicator of the appreciation that the life sciences industry had in stem cell-based approaches Toxys was taking.

Already within the first years of Toxys, ToxTracker gained international recognition thanks to the unique insights it brought to the safety testing field. Large companies started incorporating ToxTracker into their genotoxicity testing strategies. This became one of the drivers for InnovationQuarter, KIKK Capital, Zeeland Investment fund, and Rabobank to invest in Toxys, supporting our continued growth.

With ReproTracker joining our NAMs portfolio, Toxys became an innovator and expert not only in genetic, but also in developmental toxicology. A continued expansion in this portfolio to this day ensures Toxys can serve developers of novel medicines, chemicals, cosmetics and food with reliable and animal-free safety tests.

Relocating Toxys to an existing BioPartner Leiden facility was already a significant step, but when the company moved to the newly constructed BioPartner 5 building, we were fully prepared to scale up. With state-of-the-art labs and a growing team of skilled and driven individuals, Toxys became a valued partner and service provider in in vitro toxicology.

During an InnovationQuarter event, Toxys was introduced as “the NAMs company” for the first time. This emphasis on leading expertise aligned well with different milestones Toxys achieved in regulatory acceptance of NAMs. The contributions of Toxys to the shift towards utilizing NAMs in toxicology were surely products of fruitful collaborations with multiple partners.