Date: 2012-07-24
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: SM401 (humanized anti-IL-3 monoclonal antibody)
Company: Suppremol (Germany) University Hospital of Regensburg (Germany)
Therapeutic area: Autoimmune diseases - Inflammatory diseases - Rheumatic diseases
Type agreement: licensing
development
Action mechanism: SM401 has demonstrated, in a murine model for rheumatoid arthritis, that it significantly reduces progression and severity of the disease. At the same time, levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha, which are reduced by several established RA drugs, are also lowered. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that IL-3 concentrations were only elevated at the onset of arthritis and fell to low levels during the course of the disease in the animal model.
Disease: rheumatoid arthritis
Details: SuppreMol, an autoimmune disease specialist, has announced a licensing agreement with the University Hospital of Regensburg to develop SM401, a humanized anti-IL-3 monoclonal antibody for early diagnosis and treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). SuppreMol will advance preclinical development of SM401 for treatment of RA. Simultaneously, the Company will further validate a highly sensitive human IL-3 diagnostic assay for patient stratification.
SM401 has demonstrated, in a murine model for RA, that it significantly reduces progression and severity of the disease. At the same time, levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha, which are reduced by several established RA drugs, are also lowered. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that IL-3 concentrations were only elevated at the onset of arthritis and fell to low levels during the course of the disease in the animal model. Using the newly developed IL-3 diagnostic assay, SuppreMol expects to develop a biomarker for the stratification of RA patients.
SuppreMol expects to begin clinical trials in 2014.
Financial terms: Early development of SM401 is being funded by a grant of € 1.37 million from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project was funded in Prof. Mack’s laboratory through BayImmuNet, the Bayerisches Immuntherapie Netzwerk; the development of a therapeutic anti-IL-3 antibody including a highly sensitive IL-3 assay is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the Leading-Egde Cluster “m4 - Personalized Medicine and Targeted Therapies” in Munich.
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