Dive Brief:

• Shares in biotech Corvus Pharmaceuticals nearly tripled Tuesday following the release of Phase 1 trial data indicating its experimental eczema pill could work at least as well as products already on the market.
• The drug, called soquelitinib, helped a majority of people with eczema in the small 12-week trial reduce their skin lesions by 75%, a common efficacy measure. The results seen so far suggest it has “Dupixent-better efficacy,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Li Watsek wrote in a note to clients, referring to Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ widely-used injectable medication. It might prove safer than other eczema pills, too, he added.
• Soquelitinib isn’t the only drug of its kind, known as an ITK inhibitor, in development for eczema. Corvus’ data also lifted shares of another biotech, Aclaris Therapeutics, which has an ITK inhibitor in preclinical development and a second program in human testing that targets ITK as well as another protein.

Dive Insight:

ITK inhibitors block the secretion of proteins that can cause inflammation and an errant immune response, making them potentially useful in treating autoimmune disorders. In eczema, those responses can be tamped down with the help of steroids and systemic immunosuppressants, but some people have more serious disease that requires a more powerful intervention.

Those stronger treatments include injectable biologics like Dupixent, which is now one of the world’s best-selling medicines. Increasingly, though, pharmaceutical companies have turned their attention to more convenient oral alternatives. Some “JAK inhibitors” like AbbVie’s Rinvoq, are available, but have been dogged by safety concerns. Others, such as STAT6 protein degraders and now ITK inhibitors, are showing they might sidestep those issues. 

On Tuesday, Corvus released data from a cohort of 24 people, 12 of whom received soquelitinib with the rest getting a placebo. They were the first participants in Corvus’ trial to be followed over eight weeks instead of four.

Nine of the enrollees who got soquelitinib achieved 75% skin clearance, and three saw even greater results, achieving a threshold called EASI 90. Two of the enrollees receiving a placebo hit the 75% mark and none got to EASI 90.

“In our view, the new [soquelitinib] data were simply put, outstanding, and more importantly, we believe the data support a view of [soquelitinib] being a potential best-in-disease agent in [eczema],” wrote Mizuho analyst Graig Suvannavejh.

Corvus is planning to initiate a Phase 2 trial by the end of March.

Following the data readout, Corvus announced plans to sell $150 million in shares to fund further research.