Kinacept
The KINACEPT consortium represents a successful European partnership between public institutions (i.e. universities) and pharmaceutical companies. This project is supported by the European Union (SME FP7 Programme). Goal of this project is the development of p38 MAP kinase (p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases) inihibitors as drugs against inflammority diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
The [...] leads were originally elaborated as a potential therapy for inflammatory bowel disease, however, the potency of the compounds and their general anti-inflammatory mode of action has raised the possibility of studying their utility in other diseases including rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, feedback from licensing partners has indicated that clear activity in a range of other disease models, especially in rheumatoid arthritis would dramatically increase interest over IBD alone. A key issue in bringing substances of this class to the clinic is variable patient response to p38 inhibitors in previous trials. Data to date have indicated that there is a potential groups of responders for whom therapy with this class is highly beneficial. The effect of non-responders has, however, made trial outcomes to variable to warrant further development. To solve this problem, we intend to further extend proof-of-concept in patient stratification to allow us to select responder populations for initial patient trials.