Ascendance Biotechnology

Ascendance Biotechnology was a private U.S. life science tools and drug safety testing company focused on cell-based assays, hepatic models, and stem cell-derived products for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, diagnostic, cosmetics, and chemical applications. The company was formed in November 2015 through the merger of Hepregen Corporation and the ESI BIO products division of BioTime. Its offerings included proprietary micro-liver and liver-cell platforms such as HepatoPac, HepatoMune, and HepatoStem, used for metabolite analysis, safety testing, toxicology, and efficacy assessment. Rather than a therapeutic drug developer, Ascendance primarily operated as a platform and products business serving research and preclinical development workflows. The company was acquired by BioIVT in March 2018, and its technologies were folded into BioIVT's drug safety testing and toxicology portfolio.