First immunotherapy for IBD

Josep M. Aran

Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain

Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown cause with no cure. It affects the gastrointestinal tract and causes inflammation of the colon and small intestine. It currently affects some 6.8 million people worldwide and its prevalence is expected to increase by 30 % in the next decade.

Currently, the only available treatment consists of anti-inflammatory drugs, which, unfortunately, eventually stop being effective. This leads to a high cost for the healthcare system and a negative impact on patients, who may spend years taking the wrong medications and developing irreversible intestinal damage that requires surgical interventions.

The researchers in this project have developed Heptammune, a first-line biological drug derived from a blood protein that is able to restore the proper functioning of the immune system. This halts pathological inflammation, restores immune tolerance and achieves long-term disease remission without the need for immunosuppression.

Now, they intend to complete all mandatory regulatory testing to obtain a clinical proof of concept that will allow them to further develop Heptammune as an immunotherapy for this disease.

Heptammune: a first-in-class biologic immunomodulator against autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease

Stage 3