Therapeutics in Development by Organon,Anergen, published in Arthritis and Rheumatism
Historically, specific antigens involved in rheumatoid arthritis have been difficult to isolate. Identification of a candidate peptide from such an antigen would be an important step in development of therapeutics to treat the cause of this disease, rather than just the symptoms. As described in today publication (June 3, 1997), the research team at Organon was the first to identify and characterize a peptide from HC gp-39 believed to be involved in the progression of rheumatoid arthritis.
Anergen AnergiX technology combines disease-specific autoantigenic peptides and disease-associated HLA-derived proteins--two of the three elements that activate T cells. AnergiX-based compounds are designed to bind to and deactivate the disease-specific T cells. Anergen and Organon initiated a collaborative effort in June 1996, combining their respective AnergiX and HC gp-39 technologies in the development of a new therapeutic.
