ImmusanT Gets $40M From Arch, Vatera to Continue Celiac Vaccine Quest
Summary
ImmusanT’s immunotherapy is meant to train the immune systems of celiac disease patients to tolerate gluten—a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye—rather than seeing it as a foreign invader and mounting an attack.These peptides are supposed to train the immune system to see gluten as food—much in the way allergy shots help the body gradually learn to tolerate an allergen through periodic injections.CEO Leslie Willams says the company has been taking a “methodical approach” to its development plan to find the right dose to test, and identify blood-based biomarkers—cytokines—that spike during an immune response to gluten.In the coming Phase 2 trial, which should begin next year and wrap up in 2019, volunteers with celiac and a specific genetic marker present in a majority of patients with the disease will be given Nexvax2 following a gluten-free diet.The ultimate goal, through this and other tests, will be to see whether periodic Nexvax2 treatment can rewire the immune system to tolerate gluten, enabling patients to then discontinue therapy and start eating with an unrestricted diet.
Funding
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