Discovery of a first in class oral anti-inflammatory drug for eczema

Eczema is the most common inflammatory skin disease, affecting 15-20% of children and up to 10% of adults, associated with substantial morbidity. It is a chronic relapsing condition, with varying frequency and duration of disease flares, in which the symptoms of itching, scratching and infection intensify. There have been few oral small molecule drug approvals for eczema in recent years, and current treatment options are sub-optimal due to lack of efficacy, side effects or route of administration. In4Derm has discovered a novel approach to the treatment of eczema that we believe will deliver the benefits of methotrexate, without the side effects. We will discover and validate biomarker models of inflammatory disease in mouse and human cells and tissues that can be used to predict drug effects in animal models of disease and in clinical trials. This will increase the chance of a drug successfully reaching the market.