The Challenge Remains

Cure and Care

About IBD

New treatment modalities needed to reduce symptoms and long term complications

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are both chronic relapsing diseases characterized by the inflammation of parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Only in North America, more than 2 millions of people are suffering from this debilitating condition. Currently available medications alleviate inflammation but still do not prevent long term complications.

The Challenge Remains

Cure and Care

Despite the dedicated efforts from caregivers and researchers to optimize  clinical practice and identify new pharmacological treatments, a significant number of unmet patient needs still remain unaddressed and poorly understood. Thus, in the latest update of Challenge in IBD (2019, Inflamm. Bowel Dis. 25, S2) from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation,  five focus areas have been prioritized to fill the gap of unmet medical need: 1) Preclinical human IBD mechanism; 2) Environnemental triggers; 3) Novel technologies; 4) Precision medicine; and 5) Pragmatic clinical research. With a new mechanism of action and an innovative colon-specific delivery technology, Giiant Pharma is well aligned with IBD patient’s needs.

What is IBD

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is the name of a group of disorders that cause the intestines to become inflamed and ulcerated. The main forms of IBD are Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

Symptoms

Patient with IBD experience symptoms such as abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and anemia.

Disease management

IBD is a life-long disease with a typical onset in adolescence and early adult. Although people with IBD lead normal lives most of the time, the unpredictability of the symptoms and the medications need negatively impact the quality of life.

There is no cure to IBD. Therapies focus on symptoms management and maintaining remission using anti-inflammatory agents.

IBD pathogenesis

It is widely accepted that IBD is the result of dysregulated gut mucosal immune responses to environmental factors in genetically-predisposed individuals.

Ulcerative Colitis

Inflammation is more localized in ulcerative colitis and typically affect the large intestine (colon) and the rectum (proctosigmoiditis exemplified in red)

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease

What is the difference?

Ulcerative colitis (A) is confine to the large intestine with a continuous distribution starting from the anus and affecting only the mucosa of the colon. Even though Crohn’s disease most commonly affects the terminal ileum and the colon, it may involve any part of the GIT (B). CD is discontinuous and the inflammation may extend through the entire thickness of the wall of the intestine.

Crohn's disease

Inflammation from Crohn’s can strike anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract with inflamed patches interspersed between healthy portions of the gut (exemplified in red)

giiant pharma and the UC unmet medical need

Need for a new treatment option that can delay or avoid the uses of prednisone, immunosuppressants and costly biologics

Giiant’s initial efforts in the development of new IBD therapies have been oriented toward the identification of a gut-restricted anti-inflammatory agent for the treatment of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC). While the patients from the mild-to-moderate segment of the disease are well-served with the 5-aminosalicylates (mesalamine) to induce and maintain remission, treatment options for the more severe form of the disease suffer from significant limitations. These include poor safety profile from systemic immunosuppression, adverse effects of corticosteroids, lost of response to anti-TNFa and the parenteral route of administration for biologics.  In this environment, the new mechanism of action and the potential safety margin offered by Giiant’s gut-restricted technology represents a significant improvement and differentiating argument for patients, payers and health care provider.

Ulcerative colitis treatment pyramid

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