Almirall links with IRB Barcelona in skin diseases research

Spanish dermatology focussed drugmaker Almirall (ALM: MC) and IRB Barcelona (the Institute for Biomedicine) today announced a research collaboration to identify new oral treatments for immune-inflammatory skin diseases with remaining high unmet medical needs using molecular glue degraders, a novel therapeutic modality.

These monovalent degraders offer a new avenue to induce the degradation of potentially disease-causing proteins that cannot be targeted with conventional therapeutic agents.

The collaboration brings together Almirall’s scientific, dermatological, and data analysis knowledge with the expertise of the IRB Barcelona’s Targeted Protein Degradation and Drug Discovery lab, led by Dr Cristina Mayor-Ruiz. Recently awarded with an ERC Starting Grant, Dr Mayor-Ruiz is a reputed expert on targeted protein degradation and pioneer investigator in the areas of the rational screening of molecular glues as well as the elucidation of their mechanism of action. Through this partnership, Almirall is expanding its toolbox of Targeted Protein Degradation approaches by entering the field of molecular glues.