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Therapeutics

Obesity & Cardiometabolic Diseases

Developing Breakthrough Antibody Therapeutics for Obesity and Cardiometabolic Diseases

We are developing breakthrough therapeutics for treating obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases to help people achieve high quality, durable weight loss and better overall metabolic health. Our pipeline is initially focused on highly validated targets within the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) superfamily.

•  Myostatin
•  Myostatin & Activin A Bispecific
•  Activin E

These proteins are believed to inhibit muscle growth and balance calorie intake with calorie expenditure. By “inhibiting the inhibitors,” our therapeutic candidates have the potential to help patients retain and build muscle mass during and after weight loss with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), while enhancing fat specific weight-loss for better health.

While current GLP-1s have led to significant weight loss and improved health for many clinically obese patients, a new generation of therapeutics is needed to overcome their shortcomings, such as loss of muscle mass while on treatment, inconvenient dosing, and side effects that lead some patients to discontinue therapy.

Why Myostatin?

Myostatin is a protein expressed by muscle cells that suppresses muscle growth. We are developing, for the first time, anti-myostatin therapeutics specifically tailored to treating obesity.

IBIO-600 Potential Benefits and Differentiation

  • Long-acting, first-in-class antibody targeting myostatin
  • Infrequent dosing of 3-6 months
  • Increased lean mass and reduced fat mass as evidenced by our exploratory study
  • Subcutaneous self-administration

Preclinical Data

An exploratory study of IBIO-600 in non-human primates showed increases in lean mass and a reduction in fat mass, peaking at 8 weeks, with a 3.1 percent increase in lean mass and a 5.1 percent increase in lean mass in the low and high dose groups respectively*

Myostatin x Activin A Bispecific Potential Benefits and Differentiation

  • Long-acting, first-in-class bispecific antibody
  • Simultaneously inhibits myostatin and Activin A, another muscle-growth inhibitor
  • Potent obesity treatment capable of generating pronounced muscle growth
  • Treatment for pulmonary hypertension in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, (PH-HfpEF) the most common type of heart failure
  • Bispecific enables highly selective inhibition of multiple inhibitors, unlike ligand trap approaches, which may block additional signaling molecules

*iBio Announces IBIO-600 Non-Human Primate Data Showing Extended Half-Life and Muscle Growth, and Interim In Vivo Results for First-in-Class Activin E Antibody, Advancing Cardiometabolic and Obesity Pipeline.

Activin E

Along with Myostatin, we’re targeting Activin E, another member of the TGF-β superfamily. Rare loss of function mutations in the gene encoding Activin E have been associated with reduced abdominal fat and reduced risk of cardiometabolic disease.

Activin E Antagonist Potential Benefits and Differentiation

  • First-in-class Activin E blocking antibody; a novel mechanism for pharmacological intervention
  • Fat-selective weight loss with potential to complement or offer an alternative to GLP-1s
  • Compatibility with anti-myostatin for bispecific development

Preclinical Data

A four-week preclinical study showed diet-induced obese mice experienced a 26 percent reduction in fat mass while preserving muscle function while on Activin E; when combined with a GLP-1 receptor agonist, the Activin E antibody reduced total fat mass by 77 percent*

*iBio’s First-in-Class Activin E Antibody Achieves >26% Fat Reduction Without Muscle Loss and Shows Synergy with GLP-1s in Preclinical Model

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