- Developing STING Antagonist for Treatment of Severe Lupus
- New Investment by Novo Holdings
ISD Immunotech (ISD), which is developing targeted therapies for severe autoimmune diseases, today announces it has entered into a strategic research collaboration with Biogen Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA (Nasdaq: BIIB).
ISD and Biogen will work together to develop ISD’s lead compound, ISD 017, which is being developed to treat severe lupus – systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Severe lupus is an autoimmune disease that can damage many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels and brain, which if left untreated can lead to kidney failure and cardiovascular mortality. There are up to 1.5 million people in the US alone with lupus. ISD 017 is a proprietary and novel peptide therapeutic which is an inhibitor of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway. The STING pathway has recently been shown to play a central role and to be overactivated in severe lupus, a condition with a highly underserved patient population.
