“We have the potential to provide a unique way to treat chronic inflammations”

DRUG DEVELOPMENT

Lipum has identified that BSSL has the potential to provide a unique way to treat chronic inflammations and is, yet, an unrecog­nized player in the pathophysiology and, thus, treatment of arthritis and most likely, other chronic inflammatory diseases. Namely, BSSL could be an attractive drug target to control inflammation via a novel mechanism of action.

Also, Lipum has shown that BSSL-deficient mice are protected from developing the disease in well-established animal models of autoimmune arthritis such as the pristane induced arthritis (PIA) model in rats, and in mice models collagen induced arthritis (CIA), collagen-antibody induced arthritis (CAIA)  as well as dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) induced colitis, which is an IBD model.

The active ingredient will be a new biological drug, a unique monoclonal antibody targeting the BSSL molecule and inhibiting its action. The fact that it is an antibody, as are the TNFα inhibitors, will be an advantage when it comes to clinical implementation.

A Master Cell Bank has been established for Lipum´s candidate drug SOL-116 by our partner Abzena and production development is in progress approaching manufacturing of GMP material. In parallel, the non-clinical program is advancing and toxicology studies have started aiming for iniiation of the clinical program during 2022, leading to a first clinical verification in 2023.