Empowered Patient Podcast New Therapeutic Agents for Difficult to Treat Autoimmune Diseases with Dr. Dolca Thomas Equillium
Dr. Dolca Thomas is the Executive VP of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Equillium, targeting autoimmune diseases where patients do not have a medicine that can lead to complete remission. In development, is the drug itolizumab considered a first-in-class, that focuses on the specific target and impacts what is known in the immune response as costimulation.
Dolca elaborates, "Right now, at Equillium, we're focusing on three difficult to treat autoimmune diseases. The first is graft-versus-host disease. This is a condition that develops in patients after they've had a bone marrow transplant where the donor cells that are used to treat the malignancy, the cancer that the patient has, then, later on, starts to attack the cells that belong to the patient. This is a disease that can occur anytime from immediately after transplant up to 100 days post-transplant"
"The second area where we're focused on is related to autoimmune disorders and diseases is lupus nephritis. Lupus nephritis is a disease that typically impacts women, young women, and women of color."
"The third area of focus for us as it relates to difficult to treat autoimmune diseases is asthma. There's still a need for other new therapies to help the 60% of patients that aren't positively impacted as it relates to their asthmatic control."
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