Redx Pharma to Update on Potential IPF Therapy, Including Those with Advanced Disease

Redx Pharma announced it soon give an update on early work on a potentially new type of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) treatment, called RXC006, that may help patients with advanced disease.

Peter Bunyard, PhD, the company’s head of fibrosis, will present preclinical data at the 2^nd Anti-Fibrotic Drug Development Summit, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Nov. 29. The first clinical trials are planned for 2020.

RXC006 is a first-in-class oral blocker of an enzyme called porcupine, which is involved in the Wnt cellular signaling pathway that regulates cell proliferation. Researchers have shown this pathway to be key in the development of fibrosis, or scarring, in various organs.

Blocking porcupine suppresses Wnt release with the goal of blocking disease processes linked to overactive Wnt signaling: namely, mechanisms associated with fibrotic disease progression.

According to the company, preclinical studies in mouse disease models have shown potent and highly effective Wnt pathway suppression by RXC006 in the lungs, liver, and kidneys.

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As studies show that the involvement of the Wnt pathway increases with disease severity, Redx believes that RXC006 may be effective in IPF patients with more advanced disease.

“IPF is a devastating disease with little effective treatment and there is, therefore, a clear unmet need for new therapies. Redx is excited to bring its precision medicinal chemistry expertise to bear with the discovery of this novel drug candidate,” Lisa Anson, Redx’s CEO, said in a press release.

“We look forward to taking RXC006 into clinical development,” Anson added.

Mutations in Wnt pathway components have also been associated with cancer, late-onset Alzheimer’s, early coronary disease, and type 2 diabetes, among other disorders.

A U.K.-based company, Redx aims to develop precision medicines for fibrotic diseases and cancer. RXC006 is its first candidate treatment targeting fibrosis. Another porcupine inhibitor for advanced cancer patients — called RXC004 — is in a Phase 1 safety and tolerability study (NCT03447470) in the U.K.