Date: 2014-02-18
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: epicutaneous tolerance utilizing Viaskin®
Company: DBV Technologies (France) Mount Sinai Hospital (USA - NY)
Therapeutic area: Autoimmune diseases - Inflammatory diseases
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease: Crohn’s disease
Details: * On February 18, 2014, DBV Technologies, creator of Viaskin®, a new standard in the treatment of allergies, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have announced that they entered into a research collaboration agreement to investigate the efficacy and mechanism of epicutaneous tolerance utilizing Viaskin® for the treatment of Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease is a chronic condition for which there is currently no satisfactory cure able to increase the quality of life for people who have Crohn\'s disease. DBV has already proven, in several pre-clinical studies that repeated epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT™) leads to increase natural and induced immune regulatory cells. Preliminary studies already showed that these immune regulatory cells play an essential role in by protecting the gut from inflammation. DBV partnered with the Mount Sinai team, which has world-class expertise in cellular mechanisms involved in Crohn’s disease, having already demonstrated that administration of Tregs to patients with severe Crohn’s disease was well tolerated and efficacious. DBV has established that Induction of immune regulatory cells can be achieved by epicutaneous exposure. The
combination of DBV’s technology with Mount Sinai’s expertise could lead to a first-in-class approach to induce tolerance and decrease gut inflammation.
The Collaboration will explore a novel approach to treat Crohn’s disease based on epicutaneous delivery with Viaskin® to induce regulatory cells (Treg).
Pre-clinical studies will aim at:
- Evaluating the ability of epicutaneous tolerance induction with Viaskin® to treat inflammatory colitis
- Demonstrating the functional ability of antigen-specific Tregs induced by epicutaneous exposure with Viaskin® in suppressing inflammatory responses in the gut,
- Acquiring a better knowledge of cellular mechanisms involved. These activities and studies are expected to last at least 12 months.
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