Our Approach
Our unique approach to targeting inflammatory bowel disease builds on years of clinical data and differentiated targets to deliver more effective treatments.
Current Approach
Current therapies are not enough
Current approaches to treating IBD and Celiac are lacking and there remains substantial unmet needs for patients.
"Although it is natural to hope that new treatments will be characterized by better efficacy, remission is still far from a universal experience for patients living with inflammatory bowel disease."
Specifically, targeting cytokines has proven to be modestly effective and lacking durability for patients, if they work at all.
- Inneffective Not only are current IBD drugs incredibly expensive, but they fail to break the "therapeutic ceiling" for most patients, many of whom lose response over time.
- Immunosuppressive. Rather than restoring balance, the current therapeutic approach (and the IBD drug pipeline) focuses on blocking proinflammatory cytokines; many have Black Box warnings for cancers.
- Surgery still common Major surgery or colectomy still occurs in 25-75% of IBD patients despite all of the available drugs on the market.
As these therapies have proven to have limited efficacy and durability, an emerging trend in IBD therapy is to combine anti-cytokine agents, with significant risks of AEs/SAEs for patients and at significant cost to payers. Studies to date show only modest improvement in efficacy.
What we're doing
We believe in a better path forward
We are developing therapies to fill the gaps in current IBD and Celiac treatments, with a focus on efficacy and safety.
Specifically, we are targeting multiple pathways and cell types well-established to initiate and perpetuate inflammation in these diseases.
- Effective. We aim to break the "therapeutic ceiling" hit by most drugs, including treating refractory patients who have lost response to current therapies.
- Safe. We aim to restores immune homeostasis rather than being immunosuppressive, with targeted delivery to sites of inflammation to avoid systemic effects.
- Differentiated We are targeting a novel receptor that is indispensable gut immune network, barrier function, microbial homeostasis, and response to oxidative stress.
"The efficacy and safety profiles of currently available therapies are still less than optimal in several ways, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic targets."
Our Science
Backed by years of clinical research
Our target is a novel receptor that is indispensable to the gut, backed by years of real world clinical data.
"In the past decade, this receptor has become a key regulator of the immune system."
Activation of this receptor leading to direct effects on gene transcription as well as indirect effects through other transcription factors such as NFkB, also involved in IBD.
- Barrier homeostasis. Our target improves intestinal barrier homeostasis and integrity through the upregulation of tight junction proteins and gut cell differentiation.
- Mucosal healing. An elusive but critical endpoint in IBD therapy, our target has proven to promote mucosal healing at significantly higher rates than all current therapies.
- Eubiosis. Our target also acts via IL-22 on the gut microbiotia, promoting the growth of commensal organisms and reducing the growth of pathogenic ones.
Our target is indispensable to the gut immune network, barrier function, microbial homeostasis, and response to oxidative stress, all of which are well-established as being substantially disturbed in IBD & Celiac. It has integral roles in a range of cells implicated in these diseases, incl. antigen-presenting cells, T cells, fibroblasts, macrophages, mast cells, and other immune & epithelial cells.