Redx moves porcupine inhibitor towards the clinic for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Redx might have an inhibitor of porcupine enzyme with a potential to treat fibrosis in human patients, it said on Friday announcing the presentation of pre-clinical data for its newly nominated development candidate RXC006 at the Advances in Fibrosis Drug Discovery Conference in Cambridge, USA. 

Redx said that the novel inhibitor of the porcupine enzyme, will be developed as an orally administered, first-in-class treatment for the orphan disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) – a severe and possibly deadly chronic lung condition and limited treatment options. Redx says it should begin with first-in-man studies in 2020.

The company noted in its announcement that Dr Peter Bunyard, Head of Fibrosis at Redx, presented results from preclinical studies, in the first public disclosure of the data, which showed that RXC006 effectively suppressed the Wnt pathway (porcupine sits on the Wnt pathway) and lung fibrosis, in vivo.

More specifically, the company pointed out, RXC006 was able to suppress the release of Wnt-5a (another protein on the Wnt pathway) from human lung fibroblasts at nanomolar concentrations and reduce fibroblast activation. In two separate mouse models of disease, RXC006 strongly reduced collagen deposition and significantly impacted Ashcroft scores (a validated scale for estimating the severity of pulmonary fibrosis), when dosed therapeutically, Redx highlighted.

Dr Richard Armer, Chief Scientific Officer, Redx Pharma said: “The data suggests that RXC006 has great potential to treat fibrosis in human patients. Redx are progressing RXC006 towards the clinic for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and plan to initiate first in man clinical trials during 2020.”