IFM Therapeutics Announces Dosing of First Subjects in Phase 1 Healthy Volunteer Study of Lead NLRP3 Antagonist, IFM-2427

BOSTON, March 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IFM Therapeutics (IFM), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system, today announced that the first subjects have been dosed in a Phase 1 healthy volunteer trial of IFM-2427. IFM-2427, the lead program from IFM's subsidiary IFM Tre, is a first-in-class systemic NLRP3 (NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing 3) antagonist that can potentially block the inflammatory responses underlying a variety of serious diseases.

"Initiating this Phase 1 trial of IFM-2427 – less than a year after IFM Tre was launched – is a meaningful achievement for IFM and reflective of our team's ability to efficiently advance product candidates from discovery to clinical development," said Gary D. Glick, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of IFM Therapeutics. "Further, this first-in-human study of a systemic NLRP3 inhibitor reinforces our leadership in innate immune system biology. We are committed to exploiting the full therapeutic potential of NLRP3 inhibition through the advancement of chemically-distinct molecules with varying mechanisms of action and across a breadth of indications."

NLRP3 is an intracellular innate immune signaling receptor that allows immune cells to detect the presence of pro-inflammatory foreign or endogenous molecules that signal infection, tissue damage or metabolic derangements. These conditions trigger the assembly of a multi-protein complex called an inflammasome, which then initiates an immune response. While this response can be useful for fending off foreign pathogens, abnormal or chronic activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome is known to cause negative downstream effects and the onset and progression of numerous diseases.  

IFM-2427 is the first of IFM Tre's three unique development candidates to enter the clinic, all of which are intended to block only the inflammation driven by the NLRP3 pathway, leaving other immune pathways unsuppressed and free to produce inflammatory responses to confront harmful pathogens. 

IFM-2427 is a first-in-class small molecule designed to inhibit the activity of NLRP3 outside the central nervous system by directly binding to the protein, thereby blocking its activation that leads to the maturation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-18 along with pyroptosis, an inflammatory form of cell death.  The Phase I clinical study of IFM-2427 is being carried out in up to 90 subjects and is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2019.

About IFM Tre
IFM Tre, a subsidiary of IFM Therapeutics (IFM), is a biopharmaceutical company developing a suite of small-molecule antagonists targeting inappropriate inflammatory responses of the innate immune system via the NLRP3 pathway, which is believed to underlie a variety of serious diseases. The Company is developing chemically distinct systemic, gut-directed and CNS-penetrant drug candidates to address a breadth of indications triggered by NLRP3, including metabolic, fibrotic, autoimmune, autoinflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases.

About IFM Therapeutics
IFM Therapeutics (IFM) is a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Company was founded by an international group of preeminent scientists and physicians following the sale of IFM Therapeutics, Inc (originally founded by Gary Glick and Atlas Venture) to Bristol-Myers Squibb. IFM's team has discovered and developed small molecules that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system as next-generation therapies for cancer, auto-immunity, and inflammatory disorders. In addition to IFM Tre, IFM owns and operates IFM Due, a subsidiary company launched in February 2019 that is developing small-molecule antagonists and inhibitors targeting aberrant inflammatory responses of the innate immune system triggered by the cGAS-STING pathway, which is believed to underlie a variety of serious diseases. For more information, please visit www.ifmthera.com.  

SOURCE IFM Therapeutics

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