As a former division of a multinational pharmaceutical company, the R&D unit had several therapeutic areas of interest, with different areas of expertise. And thanks to the commitment of the R&D unit, different commercially successful products were developed in many indications.
As an independent company, Rottapharm Biotech has elected to initially focus on rheumatic diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a field where its scientists are internationally recognized scientific authorities. A multilevel approach has been implemented to discover and develop innovative symptom-modifying and disease-modifying drugs for OA, and new immunomodulators as innovative disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) for RA and other autoimmune disorders.
To date, four projects at different stages of active development are comprised in a coherent yet varied rheumatology platform. Complementing the core platform are two projects with solid scientific grounds, intended for unmet medical needs in oncology and immuno-oncology.
The company’s strategy is to look for partnership at an early stage of development, ranging from significant preclinical stages to Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trials depending on the specific project.