Drug discovery and development company Redx Pharma (REDX), announced on Tuesday that Innovate UK was awarded a grant to fund the development of its biomarker project aiming to accelerate therapeutics for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The £515,595 grant was awarded to both Redx Pharma and Medicines Discovery Catapult who are leading the project.
The collaboration will enable a preclinical assessment, as well as informing a clinical development strategy for Redx’s Porcupine (RXC006) and ROCK2 inhibitors which aim to enter the clinic by 2021.
A multimodal approach will be undertaken by MDC to investigate novel biomarker signatures to characterise disease and treatment response.
The project, which is funded by Innovate UK, aims to accelerate the assessment of novel therapeutics for life-threatening fibrotic lung conditions which, amongst other fibrotic diseases, have a high unmet medical need.
Fibrotic diseases lack new therapies due to lack of translation between animal models and human disease -- additionally, robust biomarker strategies that can aid assessment in patients do not exist at present.
Redx’s project is working to validate and develop new biomarkers which are expected to assist a pipeline of new therapies for IPF, improving the likelihood of clinical success.
"This partnership with Redx will allow the development of a robust portfolio of biomarkers for IPF and the progression of anti-fibrotic therapies in a faster and better-informed way,” added Chief Scientific Officer of Medicines Discovery Catapult, Dr Peter Simpson.
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