LONDON (Alliance News) - C4X Discovery Holdings PLC on Wednesday said its conformational design technology can "significantly outperform" conventional drug-discovery approaches and said its technology has identified small molecules that can treat numerous conditions such as arthritis and skin problems.
The drug discovery and design company is conducting research against Interleukin-17, a cytokine that acts as a potent mediator in multiple inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. C4X is researching key, highly selective small molecule leads in its programme against Interleukin-17.
"We continue to expand our proprietary pipeline by using C4XD's highly effective conformational design technology, and our IL-17 programme is the latest addition," said the company.
"We have shown again that our conformational design technology can significantly outperform conventional drug-discovery approaches when it comes to generating novel agents for challenging disease targets, in this case the member of a protein-protein interaction that has typically proved difficult to target with small-molecule drugs," it said in a statement.
Interleukin-17 is the subject of numerous clinical studies around the world as researchers try to target Interleukin-17 based around monoclonal antibodies.
"Historically, identifying small molecules that specifically inhibit the IL-17 pathway has been extremely challenging, but our technology has identified small molecules that can selectively block the IL-17/IL-17R interaction with high potency. These are conventional, drug-like compounds, for oral and/or topical use, which would offer benefits over injectable therapies such as IL-17 antibodies. We aim to progress our IL-17 programme towards optimisation and in vivo validation over the coming months," it said in a statement.
The first significant market that the antibodies, if successful, will target will be to treat the skin condition psoriasis, a market estimated to be worth around USD6.0 billion per year. Other markets that could be targeted include the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and a form of spinal arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis. Those two markets are thought to have a combined worth of USD6.0 billion per year, it said.
In addition, C4X said it will apply for regulatory approval for the phase one studies of its compound, Orexin-1, before the end of 2015. Orexin-1 is aiming to treat addiction and is the company's most advanced compound.
The company's other programmes targeting type 2 diabetes and inflammation are progressing towards proof of concept data, and the company expects to be in a position to announce further news regarding these programmes before the end of 2015, it said.
"We are rapidly building a portfolio of highly attractive programmes in areas of significant unmet medical need with large target markets. Our technology can be applied broadly to generate drug candidates in a fraction of the time and cost incurred using conventional methods," said C4X.
C4X shares were down 0.6% to 67.10 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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