Collaboration focuses on studies of AZM-152 to enable submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the prevention of BPD in preterm infants
November 13, 2024 via PR Newswire
MALVERN, PA (11/13/24) - Azome Therapeutics, an early-stage drug development company, today announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to investigate AZM-152, the company’s novel inflammasome antagonist, in bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).
Under the terms of the agreement, NCATS, part of the National Institutes of Health, will collaborate with Azome Therapeutics to perform preclinical development studies of AZM-152 to enable the submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the prevention of BPD in preterm infants.
“We are honored to have been selected by NCATS for this important research collaboration, and excited that they share our vision for AZM-152 as a potential preventative therapeutic for BPD,” said Rashmin Savani, MBChB, Chairman of Azome’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) is a severe lung condition that affects 30-50% of preterm infants weighing less than 1000 grams. It develops due to ventilator and oxygen-induced damage to immature lungs, leading to an inflammatory response that results in abnormal lung development with decreased alveolarization. Approximately 15,000 infants develop BPD each year in the United States, and 10-15% of them die in the first year of life. In addition to the direct impacts on the infant and the toll this disease takes on families, healthcare expenditure has been estimated at $5B per year.
AZM-152 is a potent and specific antagonist that blocks activation of the inflammatory process that causes BPD. This inflammatory pathway, the NLRP3 inflammasome, is critical to the development of a wide variety of other diseases in addition to BPD. AZM-152 selectively blocks an essential component of the signaling pathway (the receptor for hyaluronan-mediated motility, or RHAMM) that results in aberrant NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
Previous preclinical studies in BPD have demonstrated that when AZM-152 is given as a single dose to neonatal mice exposed to hyperoxia, no inflammatory response is observed, and lung alveolarization is preserved. This preclinical finding has raised the possibility of the prevention of BPD.
“It is our hope that this novel, first-in-class therapy will one day help the thousands of families affected by this most common chronic lung disease of childhood, for which there are no current therapeutic options and no effective means of prevention,” added Azome Therapeutics CEO Elliott Gruskin, PhD.
About Azome Therapeutics
Azome Therapeutics is an early-stage drug development company focused on developing selective antagonists of the NLRP3 inflammasome, an inflammatory pathway critical to the development of a wide variety of diseases, including BPD, acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, systemic sepsis, acute liver and kidney injury, and pneumonia. The company’s lead candidate, AZM-152, is a RHAMM-derived antagonist that blocks key upstream priming and activation signals involved in the aberrant activation of the NLRP3 inflammatory cascade.