Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a serious progressive lung disease that severely affects physical well-being and the condition develops when lung tissue becomes thick and stiff. It is characterized by a high degree of illness and mortality. Over time permanent scarring in the lung, called fibrosis, happens and this makes it difficult to breathe. Besides shortness of breath that becomes worse over time, additional symptoms can be a dry cough that is not improving, achy joints and muscles, feeling tired/weak and slowly losing weight. Common complications of IPF are pulmonary hypertension and respiratory failure. This happens when the lungs cannot deliver enough oxygen to the rest of the body, including the brain.
The underlying cause of IPF is unknown, but risk factors are for instance male sex, aging, smoking, environmental exposures (e.g. metal dust), infections (e.g. human herpes viruses, hepatitis C), gastroesophageal reflux disease, and a family history of IPF.
Today there is no cure for IPF. Average survival is only 3-5 years after diagnosis (Swedish Pulmonary Medicine Association 2019). There are two approved drugs on the market – pirfenidone (Esbriet) and nintedanib (Ofev). These treatments do not cure the disease or improve survival, only slow down the progression of IPF and help the lungs work better. They are limited by adverse effects and drug interactions. There are reports showing that > 40% of patients stop the treatment within the first year due to side-effects. Doctors are sometimes reluctant to initiate therapy due to the shortcomings of available therapy which in many markets are also very costly. Consequently, there is a large proportion of patients that receive suboptimal or no treatment.
Thus, the medical need for new effective and well tolerated treatments are huge.
Oxcia is developing a novel solution, OXC-201, based on completely new science published in the prestigious scientific journal Science 2018 by Professor Helleday, academic collaborators and Oxcia team. OXC-201 has the potential to improve and extend the lives of patients suffering from the currently incurable IPF. The goal of Oxcia’s research is to target the underlying inflammation and fibrosis in IPF to stop disease progression, protect and repair the lung tissue, improve lung function and halt the disease.
