Unlocking the potential of oral medicines

Creating massive opportunities through the development of high-impact oral small molecule medicines for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Transforming the treatment of chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

Through our proprietary DELSCAPE platform, we are advancing a pipeline of internally discovered, oral, small molecule therapeutics to address chronic diseases in immunology and other therapeutic areas.

Our lead program targets IL-17, an important biologically and commercially validated target for multiple autoimmune and inflammatory diseases including psoriasis.

Pipeline

Program

Indications

Discovery

Preclinical

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Program

Oral IL-17 Franchise

Indications

Psoriasis & other IL-17 mediated chronic immunology indications

Lead: DC–806

Phase 2

DC-806 is a small molecule inhibitor of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule, IL-17, which is a validated drug target for psoriasis and a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. DC-806 is the lead candidate in our Oral IL-17 Franchise.

Fast Follower: DC–853

Phase 1

DC-853 is a small molecule inhibitor of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule, IL-17, which is a validated drug target for psoriasis and a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. DC-853 is a fast-follower to DC-806, with potentially improved potency and metabolic stability.

Novel Scaffold

Preclinical

Our Novel Scaffold series includes small molecule inhibitors of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule, IL-17, which is a validated drug target for psoriasis and a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. This program aims to identify compounds with increased structural diversity.

Program

Oral Integrins

Indications

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Oral α4β7

Discovery

Our oral α4β7 program includes small molecule inhibitors of α4β7, a validated drug target for inflammatory bowel disease.

Fibrosis

Oral αVβX

Discovery

Our oral αVβX program includes small molecule inhibitors of αVβ1 and αVβ6 with a variety of selectivity profiles ranging from αVβ1 selective, to dual selective, to αVβ6 selective.

Program

Oral PD-L1

Indications

Immuno-Oncology

Oral PD-L1

Discovery

Our oral PD-L1 program includes small molecule inhibitors of PD-L1, a validated drug target for various cancers.

Program

Discovery Programs

Use DELSCAPE to prosecute validated immunology PPI Targets

Programs

IL-17 is an immune-cell derived cytokine that is produced in response to infection by certain microorganisms. Upon binding to its receptor on various cell types found in tissues (e.g. keratinocytes, fibroblasts and epithelial cells), it elicits downstream signals that orchestrate sustained tissue inflammation, with the aim of clearing the invading pathogen.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system appears to overreact and mount strong immune responses in the absence of an obvious infectious event.

The experience of the leading anti-IL-17 marketed injectable biologics, COSENTYX (secukinumab) and TALTZ (ixekizumab), have established IL-17 as a clinically and commercially validated target across a variety of immunological disorders. IL-17 is a powerful driver of psoriasis, a skin disease that occurs in the absence of an obvious infectious event. In addition to psoriasis, IL-17 inhibition has been demonstrated to show clinical benefit in other autoimmune indications including, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and hidradenitis suppurativa.

Our IL-17 franchise strategy involves advancing multiple oral IL-17 compounds into clinical development, each with differentiated properties. Our lead therapeutic candidate, DC-806, is an orally-available small molecule antagonist of IL-17 being developed initially for the treatment of psoriasis with the objective of achieving therapeutic benefit similar to that of currently marketed injectable biologics. Our IL-17 franchise also includes DC-853, a compound with potentially improved potency and metabolic stability to support projected lower dosing. With our novel scaffold series, we aim to identify compounds with increased structural diversity.

α4β7 is a powerful signaling molecule embedded in the cell membranes of immune cells and is an established target for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). ENTYVIO (vedolizumab), an α4β7 selective marketed biologic, is approved in both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease.

We intend to develop therapeutic candidates that selectively inhibit the binding of α4β7 to its protein target for IBD indications.

Increased expression of the integrins αVβ1 and αVβ6 has been observed in patients with IPF and it has been demonstrated that increased levels of αVβ1 and αVβ6 drive increased activation of TGF-β, a potent pro-fibrotic mediator. Preclinical data indicates that inhibitors of αVβ1 and αVβ6 have potential as therapeutics for the treatment of IPF and other fibrotic diseases by reducing TGF-β activation.

We intend to develop therapeutic candidates in our αVβ1/αVβ6 program for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and other fibrotic diseases.

Through our DELSCAPE platform, we have identified small molecules that can inhibit programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), a clinically and commercially-validated immuno-oncology target for the treatment of cancer. Injectable biologics that interfere in the binding of PD-L1 to its receptor PD-1 have demonstrated remarkable efficacy in the treatment of various cancers by unleashing the body’s immune system to attack cancerous cells.

Compared to antibody treatment, small molecules may offer better tissue and membrane penetration, shorter half-lives for more rapid alleviation of treatment related adverse events, and opportunities for oral combination therapies.

Our lead compounds induce dimerization of PD-L1 which blocks its ability to interact with PD-1, achieving the same biochemical effect as the marketed biologic agents.