Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc.

• Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc.
• Health-Care

IKT

We are a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for Parkinson’s Disease, or PD, and related disorders that arise inside and outside of the brain. We filed two Investigational New Drug, or IND, applications with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, in the first quarter of 2019 for our lead asset candidate, IkT-148009. One IND is for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, while the second is for treatment of gastrointestinal, or GI, complications that arise as early symptoms of PD in patients.

We initiated clinical development of IkT-148009 for the treatment of PD in 2019. First dosing of patients for treatment of PD is expected to commence shortly after the conclusion of this offering. Clinical development of IkT-148009 for the GI complications in PD patients will cross-reference the first human study of IkT-148009 for the treatment of PD.

Our programs utilize small molecule, oral protein kinase inhibitors to treat PD and its GI complications. We have shown in animal models of progressive PD that our lead clinical candidate, IkT-148009, is a brain penetrant c-Abl protein kinase inhibitor that halts disease progression and reverses functional loss in the brain and reverses neurological dysfunction in the GI tract. The ability to halt progression and restore function was shown in animal models of progressive disease that mimic the rate of disease progression and the extent of functional loss in the brain and/or the GI tract.

We believe our therapeutic approach is disease-modifying. Our understanding of how and why PD progresses has led us to believe that functional loss in Parkinson’s patients may be at least partially reversed. Based on the measurements in animal models, we believe patients treated with IkT-148009 may have their disease progression slowed or halted, we may see a progressive reduction in the need for symptomatic or supportive therapy and/or we may ultimately eliminate the need for symptomatic therapy. However, it is unknown whether the disease modification seen in the animal models will occur in the human disease following treatment with IkT-148009.

In our opinion, the multi-decade failures in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as PD result from a lack of understanding of the biochemistry of the disease processes involved. Historically, the cause of a neurodegenerative disease was thought to be a “plaque” made up of a misfolded and/or aggregated protein(s). Therapeutic approaches, therefore, sought to remove “plaque” from the brain. To our knowledge, a “plaque”-focused treatment strategy has not resulted in approval of any medication that can alter the course of a neurodegenerative disease, and has not resulted in a therapeutic benefit in PD.

We believe we are different. We identified the proteins that become dysfunctional in a disease pathway and sought to understand how a dysfunctional protein causes disease. We believe our approach to PD and other neurological diseases has identified the underlying cause of disease and led to an understanding of how individual proteins are linked together to define the disease process. Using this strategy, we believe we have discovered at least one enzyme that plays a pivotal role in the disease process for PD, the Abelson tyrosine kinase, or c-Abl. We have developed novel protein kinase inhibitors against c-Abl, which we believe can alter the disease course for PD. c-Abl chemically modifies one of the “plaque” proteins in PD, known as alpha-synuclein. Chemical modification creates what we believe to be the true toxic entity of the disease. Treatment with IkT-148009 may prevent chemical modification and, at least in animal models of progressive disease, leads to clearance of the toxic form of alpha-synuclein. 

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