Traditionally steroid-based immunosuppressants dominated treatment options for patients with chronic inflammatory diseases, however significant side effects associated with these drugs necessitated the development of novel precision medicines. While there has been great success through the advent of more targeted therapies such as anti-TNF biologics for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, these still offer more of a sledge-hammer approach compared to what could be achieved by targeting specific disease causing pathways.
Chronic inflammatory diseases account
for more than 50% of all deaths making them
the most significant cause of death globally.
GPCRs are integral to many pathological inflammatory pathways, and as such a significant opportunity exists to develop a new generation of highly specific and effective biologics for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.
Our Platform
An unparalleled platform for targeting GPCRs with antibodies
HEPTAD is DJS Antibodies’ proprietary antibody discovery technology and delivers unprecedented success rates in the discovery of functional antibodies to GPCRs. It is built on a deep understanding of immunology and antibody induction enabling us to discover functional antibodies to complex protein targets which have hitherto been intractable to drug discovery.
DJS 002
Our lead programme targets a well validated GPCR for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. While the disease severity is high, treatment options for patients suffering from fibrotic diseases such as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), NASH and Scleroderma are poor. Our antibody promises to revolutionise the space, delivering the first highly effective and well tolerated treatment for patients suffering from these diseases.
Previous attempts to drug this pathway using small molecules have been effective though have failed due to off-target safety liabilities. We have produced the first ever antibody which specifically targets the intended pathway, giving the desired efficacy without any of the unwanted side effects.
DJS 001
DJS-001 is a first-in-class programme targeting myeloid cell driven inflammatory disease. Through novel biological insights into the key drivers of myeloid cell recruitment and activation, we have produced a molecule capable of successfully targeting myeloid cell driven inflammatory pathologies. Using novel physiological characterisation techniques, we have shown that all existing competitor molecules fail to deliver biological efficacy, making DJS-001 the first candidate to successfully target this pathway.
