Ouro is planning to leverage T cell engagers to deplete B cells and “reset” the immune system to treat immune-mediated diseases.
Ouro Medicines broke onto the scene on Friday with a mission to develop “immune reset” treatments for patients suffering from chronic immune-mediated disorders.
Founded by Monograph Capital and GSK, the San Francisco–based start-up will have $115 million in starting funds, which it will use to advance its pipeline of T cell engagers and build its discovery programs targeting B cell biology. Aside from its founders, Ouro is also supported by TPG Life Sciences Innovations, NEA, Northwest Venture Partners and other investors.
“The standard of care today leaves a lot to be desired,” Ouro CEO Jaideep Dudani said in a statement, referring to existing therapies for immune-mediated diseases, which he said tend to have limited efficacy, excessive toxicity and require ongoing dosing. Ouro hopes to leverage T cell engagers to specifically address B cell disorders.
T cell engagers are bispecific antibodies designed to target and deplete certain disease-causing populations of cells. Ouro plans to leverage this approach to “reset” the immune system—that is, eliminate pathogenic B cells to bring the immune system back to a healthy state.
According to the biotech, T cell engagers could potentially lead to prolonged remission and remove the need for immunosuppression.
“Being able to precisely target cell populations with a high-potency therapeutic is crucial to depleting whole lineages of pathogenic cell populations so that we can achieve immune reset,” Dudani said.
Ouro’s most mature T cell engager is OM336, a bispecific agent that seeks out and binds to the B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), a protein highly expressed in several subtypes of B cells and which is widely known as a target for depleting B cells. The start-up licensed OM336 from Chinese biotech Keymed Biosciences, which is running a Phase II study of the candidate in multiple myeloma in China.
Outside the Greater China region, Ouro has the exclusive right to develop and commercialize OM336, and the biotech has plans to launch a Phase I study in 2025. The start-up has yet to specify what indication it plans to prioritize but has indicated in Friday’s press release that it has “supportive proof-of-concept data” for using BCMA-directed T cell engagers in diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Ouro is also working on discovery programs to target “unique subsets of B cells” and develop next-generation T cell engagers.
