The courier bag has received innovative treatments such as trispecific cytokine inhibitors, and the new sword is aimed at immune inflammatory diseases

▎WuXi AppTec Content Team Editor On February 16, 2022, Equillium announced the acquisition of Bioniz Therapeutics
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Bioniz's lead product candidates are multispecific inhibitors that simultaneously target multiple clinically validated disease-driving cytokines, including potential "first-in-class" therapies BNZ-1 and BNZ-2 in clinical development, aimed at Addressing unmet needs in a range of immuno-inflammatory indications
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Through this acquisition, Equillium's immunology R&D pipeline and technology platform include: BNZ-1: a potential "first-in-class" trispecific inhibitor of leukocytes, inflammatory cytokines associated with a variety of diseases Interleukin (IL)-2, IL-9 and IL-15
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BNZ-1 has completed its clinical proof-of-concept as a novel cytokine inhibitor through a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), showing good tolerability and safety profile, and resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in mSWAT scores for patients
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Equillium plans to first focus further development of BNZ-1 on alopecia areata for which there is no approved drug
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BNZ-2: a potential "first-in-class" selective inhibitor of IL-15 and IL-21
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Considerable translational work has been performed with BNZ-2 supporting its potential use in the treatment of a variety of gastrointestinal diseases, with IL-15 and IL-21 acting synergistically to drive celiac disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, and liver disease science
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The therapy is ready for Phase 1 clinical trials, with a proof-of-concept evaluation planned in celiac disease patients
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BNZ-2 is currently formulated for subcutaneous administration and is designed to address the unmet needs of patients who continue to experience symptoms despite trying to maintain a gluten-free diet
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Discovery Platform: Bioniz's flexible, structure-based technology platform combined with deep insights into cytokine pathways and computational modeling creates discovery capabilities that result in highly differentiated immunology products
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Its discovery pipeline includes BNZ-3, a preclinical drug candidate that is a stable peptide designed for oral administration and local action in the gut to treat gastrointestinal inflammation
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▲Bioniz product pipeline (Image source: Bioniz's official website) "This acquisition is transformative for Equillium
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" Mr.
Bruce Steel, CEO of Equillium, said, "We look forward to advancing these molecules into later stages of development to provide Innovative therapies for patients with severe immune-inflammatory diseases
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"Reference: [1] Equillium Acquires Bioniz Therapeutics Significantly Expanding Pipeline of Novel Immunomodulatory Drug Candidates.
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