Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that preclinical data for soquelitinib, the Company's lead ITK inhibitor program, was presented in a poster session at the Keystone Symposia on Systemic Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Diseases, which took place February 8-11, 2024. The poster presentation includes the first description of Corvus' next-generation ITK inhibitor preclinical product candidates, which were designed to deliver precise T-cell modulation that is optimized for specific immunology indications. The research has led to the development of next-generation inhibitors that are designed to precisely modulate specific T cell subset functions in order to potentially treat a range of diseases.

The selectivity of these next generation ITK inhibitors gives Corvus options to choose between broad immunosuppression and highly targeted immunomodulation depending on the clinical indication. The preclinical data demonstrate that soquelitinib was active in six different models of T cell-mediated inflammatory and immune disease, including acute and chronic asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), psoriasis, and acute graft versus host disease. This activity was shown to be the result of soquelitinib's ability to impact disease-associated cytokines by targeting the cellular sources, specifically Th2 and Th17 cells, which produce various cytokines including IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 and IL-17.

The Company's lead product candidate is soquelitinib, an investigational, oral, small molecule drug that selectively inhibits ITK. Corvus plans to initiate a Phase 3 registrational clinical trial for soquelitinib in patients with relapsed peripheral T cell lymphoma. Its other clinical-stage candidates are being developed for a variety of cancer indications.

The Company believes the inhibition of specific molecular targets in T cells may be of therapeutic benefit for patients with cancers, including solid tumors, and in patients with autoimmune and allergic diseases. Based on interim results from a Phase 1/1b clinical trial in patients with refractory T cell lymphomas, which demonstrated tumor responses in very advanced, refractory, difficult to treat T cell malignancies, the Company plans to initiate a registrational Phase 3 clinical trial of soquelitinib in Patients with relapsed PTCL.