According to Grand View Research, oncology was the largest segment within the preclinical CRO industry in 2025. Behind that leadership is a very specific reason: more and more targeted therapies are being developed, and all of them need to pass through preclinical models capable of supporting the same delivery routes, imaging techniques and surgical approaches that will be used in the clinic — something that, today, very few models manage to do well.

Why does standard preclinical oncology fall short so often?

• Human tumours are heterogeneous: no two are alike, not even within the same patient.
• The size and physiology of small models do not allow surgical procedures, intratumoral or arterially-directed drug delivery, or real imaging techniques to be replicated before reaching clinical phase.
• Without a defined “time zero” for tumour formation, it is difficult to standardise when and how an intervention should be tested.

The result: many approaches validated in small models cannot be replicated the way they will actually be used in a patient. This gap is precisely what the industry needs to close.

At Versa Biomedical, we are closing that gap from a different angle: the miniature pig. Its size, anatomy and physiology are far closer to human biology than those of a rodent, allowing procedures, imaging and dosing to be tested the way they would be performed in the clinic.

By crossing our own SPECIPIG® line with the Oncopig — the transgenic cancer model developed by Sus Clinicals, based on technology originally created at the University of Illinois — Versa Biomedical has bred a unique scientific asset: the first transgenic miniature pig in Europe, OncoSpecipig, capable of expressing tumours on demand, with a defined onset that supports precise study timing. This is not a theoretical development. After a year of work on this new genetic line, we have generated the first colon, subcutaneous and bladder tumours — already available, both for in-house studies at Versa Biomedical and for distribution across Europe.

This means it is now possible to design a tumour model tailored to the specific cancer under study, and to the specific device, delivery route or surgical approach that needs to be validated, in a host whose anatomy is far closer to human. It is the foundation on which we are building translational oncology models for interventional and device-based therapies, and, in the longer term, a broader platform for personalised medicine.

Every ad hoc model we open is one step closer between the laboratory and the patient. That, ultimately, is what working with open models means: bringing science closer to real outcomes.

Open models, open futures.