Our company platform builds drug molecules for specific blockade of an HLA protein in a given autoimmune disease as a novel paradigm in drug development. Our drug development of oral therapies employs a unique approach to balance the affinity to HLA binding site(s) to achieve blockade versus protecting inherent immunity against pathogens conferred by the HLA proteins. The impact of our platform has been demonstrated with a human Phase 1b clinical study in type 1 diabetes that preselected patients with HLA DQ8 status and showed the selected drug’s high effectiveness in DQ8 blockade. We are establishing a pipeline of drugs against HLA DQ2 (celiac), HLA DQ8 (Type 1 diabetes and celiac), and other HLA-related autoimmune indications.
