Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a debilitating chronic inflammatory disease that significantly impacts patients' quality of life and affect up to 1% of the world's population or 18 million people. Lipum has discovered the Bile Salt-Stimulated Lipase (BSSL) as a novel target for treatment of RA and developed a monoclonal humanized antibody (SOL-116) directed against BSSL as a promising candidate drug (currently in the end of a phase 1 clinical study).

In the project, we will define a panel of carefully selected protein biomarkers assembled to accurately predict arthritis development and the disease course in patients with increased risk of RA and patients with recent-onset disease. Particularly, we will search for biomarkers associated with BSSL serum levels that can predict response to Lipum’s lead candidate drug SOL-116 and lay the foundation for a companion diagnostic test which in the end will increase the chance of SOL-116 to reach the market.

Swelife – For a competitive life science ecosystem in Sweden – is a strategic innovation programme, funded by the Swedish Government via the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova, and by the programme’s partners. They support collaboration within academia, industry and healthcare, with the goal to strengthen Life Science in Sweden and to improve public health.

We are very grateful for the support we have received from Swelife. This funding enables a very important collaboration between Lipum, Karolinska Institutet and Linköping university where it will give us the opportunity to identify proteomic biomarkers to predict the course of early RA”, says Ola Sandborgh, CEO Lipum.