Helping Istesso tackle severe, chronic autoimmune disease .

Istesso discovers and develops programmed disease resolving drugs for the treatment of severe, chronic diseases of autoimmunity and fibrosis.

While conventional disease-modifying medicines can slow pathologic, symptomatic and functional decline, they cannot reverse disease and may suppress repair. Istesso’s approach has the potential to go beyond conventional disease modification by rebuilding damaged tissue to restore normal architecture. Istesso’s lead compound, leramistat, moves the interventional needle from disease modification to disease resolution, and is currently in clinical development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 

Early research at the University of Aberdeen had identified some hits that protected against bone loss and showed anti-inflammatory activity.  Noticing this interesting dual pharmacology, Istesso licensed the intellectual property relating to these compounds and started a program of work to make the compounds drug-like, and to decipher and understand their mechanism of action. 

As the team decoded and optimised the initial idea and started to understand the unique biology that the compounds were unmasking, Istesso started to develop more programmed disease resolution projects generating platform for this novel biology and a pipeline of novel assets to exploit it. IP Group has provided funding and strategic input throughout. 

Istesso’s approach has the potential to go beyond conventional disease modification by rebuilding damaged tissue to restore normal architecture. This could enable patients to not only reduce symptoms but also reverse their decline, resolving disease and regaining lost function.