A pair of potential chronic kidney disease (CKD) therapeutics are running through the R&D gauntlet thanks to some promising preclinical research. Specifically, twoXAR Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery and development company focused on bringing first-in-class small molecules to market, announced that two novel CKD leads, TXR-1208 and TXR-1210, demonstrated significant efficacy and excellent tolerability in preclinical studies.
TXR-1208 and TXR-1210 represent two different novel mechanisms of action (MOA). The overall timing to complete predictions, select hits, and begin in-vivo testing was a total of four weeks, significantly faster than traditional drug discovery processes, according to the company. The data was presented at the Third Chronic Kidney Disease Drug Development (CKD3) Summit.
“A traditional R&D approach would have taken months or even years to identify just one potential target with a novel MOA,” stated Anjali Pandey, senior vice president of nonclinical R&D and chemistry at twoXAR. “But our unique approach simultaneously identified and selected two unexplored and promising candidates, TXR-1208 and TXR-1210, in just a few weeks. The favorable data presented today reaffirms our decision to advance a lead candidate as part of our CKD program.”
CKD is a slow and progressive loss of kidney function over several years, which can eventually cause permanent kidney failure. CKD often goes undetected and undiagnosed until the disease is well advanced, and the damage is irreversible resulting in poor survival rates. There are estimated to be 700 million cases of CKD worldwide, and currently there is no cure.
“Chronic kidney disease is a silent condition that goes undiagnosed in the early stages, leaving patients with severe consequences, poor survival rates and in desperate need of new and innovative treatment options,” said Michael J. Ross, chief of the Division of Nephrology and a professor of medicine and molecular biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “It’s encouraging to see positive preclinical data at this year’s CKD3 Summit, including research supporting novel mechanisms of action that have yet to be explored for the treatment of CKD.”
In-vivo efficacy with TXR-1208 and TXR-1210 was evaluated using a unilateral ureteral obstruction mouse model. Both TXR-1208 and TXR-1210 demonstrated significant decrease in kidney fibrosis and inflammation compared to TGFbeta mAb, the standard metric for positive efficacy.
