Inflazome has brought on Thomas Jung, M.D., Ph.D., to be its new chief medical officer and lead clinical development of its NLRP3 inhibitors for inflammatory diseases.
The appointment comes about a week after the Irish-British biotech raised €40 million ($46 million) in a series B round, with funding from Forbion, Longitude Capital, Fountain Healthcare Partners and Novartis Venture Fund.
Jung previously spent 13 years at Novartis and its biomedical research institute, focusing on immunology and anti-inflammatory drugs. He helped lead the development of Illaris (canakinumab) for cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, a rare monogenetic disease, as well as its expansions into systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, gout and other rare fever syndromes.
He also served as development head for immunology products and later as head of the translational medicine group for Novartis Europe.
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After that, Jung founded his own life sciences consultancy, and served as CMO for Delenex Therapeutics and chief development officer for Auris Medical, both based in Switzerland. He also holds an associate professor position in dermatology at the University of Göttingen in Germany.
At Inflazome, Jung will oversee its operations in Dublin and Cambridge, U.K., for the development of small-molecule inhibitors for NLRP3 inflammasomes. Those proteins are associated with a broad range of conditions driven by harmful inflammation, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as cardiovascular, liver, kidney and inflammatory bowel diseases, though Inflazome has not yet specified its lead indication.
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It’s the same mechanism of action targeted by the San Diego-based Jecure Therapeutics, which was bought up by Genentech earlier this week for an undisclosed sum. Its preclinical NASH portfolio aims to block inflammasome activation and disrupt a self-perpetuating loop that results in liver cell injury and cell death.
And earlier this year, Nodthera and IFM Tre each raised more than $30 million for their respective NLRP3 pipelines, though they have not yet named specific treatment areas.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to better reflect the current status of Inflazome's lead indication.