Announcement • 2h
InflaRx Assesses Feasibility Of Broadened Strategy For ANCA-Associated Vasculitis In Europe Following EMA Recommendation On Tavneos
InflaRx N.V. announced it is assessing the feasibility of broadening its development and registrational strategy for ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in Europe. The company has initiated this assessment given the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to revoke the marketing authorization for Tavneos in the European Union, announced on June 26, 2026. The Company announced it intends to engage with EMA regarding both its anti-C5a antibody vilobelimab, which is approved under exceptional circumstances as GOHIBIC in Europe for SARS-CoV-2-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome, in addition to its next-generation oral C5aR inhibitor izicopan. This will be part of the Company’s overall development goal to determine the most efficient development pathway to bring the C5a/C5aR inhibition mechanism to patients. The previously announced Phase 2 planning with izicopan in AAV continues as planned and uninterrupted across multiple geographies. InflaRx considers vilobelimab to be a Phase 3-ready asset in AAV, where it has completed two Phase 2 studies in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, BDB-001, a vilobelimab cell line-produced antibody, has completed Phase 2 development and is being evaluated by InflaRx’s collaborator, Staidson BioPharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. (Staidson), in a Phase 3 trial in AAV in China. Together, vilobelimab and izicopan provide InflaRx with a complementary biologic and oral pipeline that is well positioned to address the evolving treatment landscape and significant unmet medical need in AAV. A growing body of clinical data supporting the utility and safety of anti-C5a therapy in AAV has emerged in recent years. Vilobelimab has been evaluated in two controlled Phase 2 AAV studies, the European IXCHANGE trial (NCT03895801) and the U.S. IXPLORE trial (NCT03712345). In IXCHANGE, which tested vilobelimab as a replacement for glucocorticoids on a background of standard-of-care rituximab or cyclophosphamide, clinical response and remission rates with vilobelimab were comparable to those achieved with standard-dose glucocorticoids, while cumulative glucocorticoid exposure and glucocorticoid-related toxicity were substantially lower in vilobelimab-treated patients. In IXPLORE, vilobelimab added to standard of care was well tolerated without signals of safety concerns. Across both IXCHANGE and IXPLORE, vilobelimab demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile, with IXCHANGE supporting its potential to induce remission while markedly reducing the glucocorticoid burden. In addition, under a license agreement where it holds development and commercialization rights in China, our collaborator Staidson has generated promising AAV data with BDB-001, an anti-C5a antibody produced using the vilobelimab cell line. The multicenter, randomized, open-label, parallel-controlled Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Staidson demonstrated that BDB-001 injection combined with reduced-dose glucocorticoids or without glucocorticoids achieved comparable partial response rates and numerically higher complete response rates at 12 weeks of treatment compared with standard of care using the Birmingham vasculitis score (BVAS). After successful completion of this Phase 1/2 study, Staidson initiated a Phase 3 trial in China in 2025, which is ongoing. AAV is a rare, life-threatening autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation and damage to small blood vessels, with patients often experiencing serious organ involvement, including renal impairment. InflaRx believes the recent regulatory developments underscore the continued need for well-characterized, mechanistically targeted therapies that may help address the significant unmet medical need in this disease. Izicopan is an orally administered, small molecule inhibitor of the C5a receptor (C5aR) that has shown anti-inflammatory therapeutic effects in several pre-clinical disease models and in human studies. Further, in contrast to the marketed C5aR inhibitor, in vitro experiments demonstrated that izicopan does not exhibit time-dependent inhibition of cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4), which plays an important role in the metabolism of a variety of metabolites and drugs, including glucocorticoids. Izicopan has also demonstrated a favorable reactive metabolite profile in human liver microsomes. Reported results from a first-in-human study demonstrated that izicopan was well tolerated in treated subjects and exhibited no safety signals of concern in single doses ranging from 3 mg to 240 mg or multiple doses ranging from 30 mg once per day to 90 mg twice per day for 14 days. Pharmacokinetic /pharmacodynamic data support the best-in-class potential of izicopan, with a =90% blockade of C5a-induced neutrophil activation achieved over the 14-day dosing period. Topline Phase 2a data further support the safety profile of izicopan, with no reported safety signals of concern. In patients with hidradenitis suppurativa, over 4 weeks of therapy, izicopan provided rapid and clinically meaningful reductions in abscesses and nodules and draining tunnels, robust HiSCR responses that continued to deepen four weeks after the treatment period, and substantial reductions in patient-reported pain scores, overall demonstrating the potential for biologic-like efficacy. In chronic spontaneous urticaria, InflaRx observed substantial reductions in the 7-day Urticaria Activity Score (UAS7) broadly across patients and particularly in those with severe disease, as well as improved disease control as measured by the Urticaria Control Test (UCT7). In addition, InflaRx is planning for development of izicopan in AAV and additional renal indications. Vilobelimab is a first-in-class monoclonal anti-human complement factor C5a antibody which highly and effectively blocks the biological activity of C5a and demonstrates high selectivity towards its target in human blood. Thus, vilobelimab leaves the formation of the membrane attack complex (C5b-9) intact as an important defense mechanism of the innate immune system, which is not the case for molecules blocking C5. In pre-clinical studies, vilobelimab has been shown to control the inflammatory response-driven tissue and organ damage by specifically blocking C5a as a key “amplifier” of this response. In the EU, GOHIBIC (vilobelimab) has been granted marketing authorization under exceptional circumstances for the treatment of adult patients with SARS-CoV-2-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who are receiving systemic corticosteroids as part of standard of care and receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) (with or without extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)). The EU approval of GOHIBIC is supported by the previously announced results of the multicenter Phase 3 PANAMO trial, one of the largest 1:1 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in invasively mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
