(Sharecast News) - Drug discovery and development company Redx Pharma announced the nomination of RXC007 as its next drug development candidate for the treatment of fibrosis on Thursday.
The AIM-traded firm described RXC007 as a "novel and selective" rho associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) inhibitor, which is an enzyme that sits at a nodal point in cell signalling pathways believed to be central to fibrosis.
It said fibrosis is a "key pathogenic factor" in multiple diseases with high unmet medical need, and ROCK2 is therefore an important emerging drug target, with RXC007 to be developed as a best-in-class drug to target several fibrotic diseases.
Those would include the orphan disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which is a severe and life-threatening chronic lung condition with very poor prognosis and limited treatment options, as well as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an inflammatory and fibrotic disease of the liver, and diabetic nephropathy, which is a serious diabetic kidney disease.
Redx said preclinical data with compounds from its ROCK2 programme had demonstrated robust anti-fibrotic effects in a range of industry-standard in vivo models.
Specifically, RXC007 - which is orally bioavailable - reportedly met fibrosis endpoints in disease models of liver and lung fibrosis.
Additionally, RXC007's selective inhibition of ROCK2 over other enzyme isoforms should enable a safe cardiovascular profile in patients, the company claimed.
It said Dr Nicolas Guisot, research fellow at Redx, recently presented preclinical data from this programme at the third annual Anti-fibrotic Drug Development (AFDD) conference in Boston in November.
The firm said it was aiming to initiate a phase 1 study with RXC007 in the first half of 2021, while evaluating clinical development pathways in IPF and potentially in other disease areas.
It was the second development candidate that Redx had progressed in the area of fibrosis following the nomination of RXC006, which is a novel, orally available porcupine inhibitor, that it was developing as a first-in-class treatment for IPF.
"Redx is pleased to be progressing the development of this exciting drug candidate that selectively inhibits ROCK2 as a potential treatment for multiple fibrotic diseases," said chief executive officer Lisa Anson.
"This is a challenging area of chemistry and the Redx team is proud to deliver another successful drug candidate.
"We look forward to taking RXC007 into clinical trials in the first half of 2021."
At 1107 GMT, shares in Redx Pharma were down 1.21% at 8.15p.
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