Inflammasome Therapeutics

Inflammasome Therapeutics is a private, clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class inhibitors of inflammasome activation for degenerative diseases. Its compounds, called Kamuvudines, are chemical derivatives of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors engineered to retain anti-inflammasome activity without the mitochondrial toxicity of the parent HIV and hepatitis B drugs. The lead program, K8, completed enrollment in a multicenter Phase II dose-ranging study in geographic atrophy, and the company also works on diabetic macular edema and thyroid eye disease. It was founded in 2016 by Jayakrishna Ambati and Paul Ashton and is based in Newton, Massachusetts.

Kamuvudines are derived from decades-old approved antiretrovirals but chemically altered so they cannot undergo the metabolism that causes mitochondrial toxicity, giving a dual inflammasome-inhibition mechanism with an established safety lineage. The company pairs this with its own sustained-release delivery technology for ocular implants.