IFM Therapeutics, LLC, a biopharma focused on developing therapies that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system, has launched IFM Due (pronounced du-way), a subsidiary company developing a suite of cGAS inhibitors and STING antagonists that aim to block excessive production of interferon and other pro-inflammatory cytokines via the cGAS/STING pathway, which is known to drive a range of serious diseases. The company also announced that award-winning immunologist Andrea Ablasser of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, will serve as founding scientist for IFM Due and join the scientific advisory board for IFM. IFM Due is the second subsidiary launched by IFM.
 
“The cGAS/STING pathway is exciting because it enables us to focus on genetically validated therapeutic targets that have been implicated in a growing number of autoinflammatory and autoimmune disorders,” said Gary Glick, chief executive officer and co-founder of IFM. “Building on the success of IFM and its subsidiary IFM Tre, we look forward to working with Dr. Ablasser and the IFM Due team to target this key innate immune system pathway with precision and deliver treatment options for patients that address significant unmet needs.”
 
Discovered only a decade ago, the cGAS/STING (cyclic GMP-AMP Synthase, Stimulator of Interferon Genes) pathway is a part of the innate immune system that senses cytosolic DNA, which is a danger signal. When microbial or aberrant human DNA is present outside the cell nucleus in the cytosol, cGAS recognizes it and triggers a STING-dependent production of interferon and other inflammatory cytokines. Mutations that activate this pathway cause a variety of serious autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases in humans that are characterized by excessive interferon/cytokine signaling, including rare diseases such as Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS), STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI) and a subset of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Aberrant cGAS/STING activation also underlies more common diseases such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Parkinson’s disease.
 
IFM Due will house two preclinical development programs. The first is aimed at developing orally available small-molecule antagonists of STING that can block its ability to stimulate excessive production of interferons and other pro-inflammatory cytokines. Clinical trials of the first STING antagonist are expected to begin in 2020. The second program is aiming to develop small-molecule inhibitors of cGAS, which will block the pathway at a more upstream node.