Corvus Pharmaceuticals has announced positive safety and efficacy results for soquelitinib, an oral treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, in cohort 4 of a phase 1 clinical trial.
The cohort 4 data demonstrated favorable safety and efficacy results consistent with results from cohorts 1-3. Cohort 4 extended the treatment time from four weeks to eight weeks and demonstrated an additional clinical benefit over the longer treatment time. The results also showed clinical activity in patients who had received prior systemic therapies, including patients resistant to therapies like dupilumab and JAK inhibitors
Soquelitinib is an investigational small molecule drug given orally designed to selectively inhibit ITK (interleukin-2-inducible T cell kinase), an enzyme that is expressed predominantly in T cells and plays a role in T cell and natural killer (NK) cell immune function. Soquelitinib regulates multiple T cell functional pathways by acting upstream. This may have potential for other inflammatory and immune diseases.
The latest results have led Corvus to begin a phase 2 trial in patients where topical or systemic therapy has previously failed to treat their moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.