Health Boards
Ensemble Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing EnsemblinsTM, a novel class of small molecule therapeutics with the power of biologics, announced today that the company has identified a series of unique small molecule antagonists of Interleukin-17, a pro-inflammatory cytokine implicated in multiple inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s and intestinal bowel disease. The Ensemblins represent first-in-class small molecule antagonists of this important, clinically validated protein-protein-interaction target that has proven impervious to traditional small molecule pharmaceutical approaches and has only been addressed to date with protein therapeutics. A small orally active inhibitor of IL-17 would have significant advantages over the current class of clinical stage anti-IL-17 antibody products.
“To our knowledge, no other small molecule antagonists of IL-17 exist in spite of the active efforts of a number of major pharmaceutical companies to find such compounds.” said Dr. Michael D. Taylor, CEO of Ensemble Therapeutics. “The discovery of a series of small molecule macrocycles that exhibit single-digit nanomolar potency, and are selective and druggable with excellent potential for oral administration is a compelling example of the power of Ensemble’s drug discovery platform against a most challenging and valuable target.”
The company expects this rapidly advancing program to produce an orally active development candidate by the end of 2012.
The IL-17 program reflects, in part, Ensemble’s increasing focus on the key therapeutic areas of oncology and immuno-inflammatory diseases for its internal macrocycle drug discovery and development efforts.
Source:ensembletx.com
“To our knowledge, no other small molecule antagonists of IL-17 exist in spite of the active efforts of a number of major pharmaceutical companies to find such compounds.” said Dr. Michael D. Taylor, CEO of Ensemble Therapeutics. “The discovery of a series of small molecule macrocycles that exhibit single-digit nanomolar potency, and are selective and druggable with excellent potential for oral administration is a compelling example of the power of Ensemble’s drug discovery platform against a most challenging and valuable target.”
The company expects this rapidly advancing program to produce an orally active development candidate by the end of 2012.
The IL-17 program reflects, in part, Ensemble’s increasing focus on the key therapeutic areas of oncology and immuno-inflammatory diseases for its internal macrocycle drug discovery and development efforts.
Source:ensembletx.com
