Head-To-Head Preclinical Studies Of SFA-002 As A Novel Psoriasis Treatment Presented At The 2025 American Academy Of Dermatology Annual Meeting

(MENAFN- PR Newswire)

• Mice dosed with SFA-002 displayed reduction in psoriasis disease severity and greater reduction in skin thickening compared to etanercept and apremilast in the in vivo model
  
• SFA-002 reduced key inflammatory markers and skin damage at comparable levels to betamethasone and apremilast in the ex vivo model

JENKINTOWN, Pa., March 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SFA Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel oral small-molecule biosynthetic compounds for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, today announced the presentation of two posters on oral psoriasis drug candidate SFA-002 at the 2025 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting, to take place from March 7 – 11 in Orlando, Florida.

A poster entitled, "Profiling of Apremilast and SFA-002 in an Imiquimod (IMQ) Mouse Model of Psoriasis," will be available at the poster viewing session area in the exhibition hall Friday, March 7, through Sunday, March 9.

"Psoriasis can be a challenging condition to manage due to long-term treatments with various side effects. SFA-002's effect in the imiquimod-induced mouse model is compelling. The results demonstrated a significant reduction in the severity of psoriasis, in-line with existing treatments etanercept and apremilast, as shown by the lowest change in skin thickening. These results suggest that SFA-002 may offer a promising new oral treatment option for individuals struggling with psoriasis by addressing both the inflammation and the visible symptoms," commented Stefan Weiss, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer.

In an imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis model, in vivo efficacy of etanercept, apremilast, and oral drug candidate SFA-002 were compared in mice. Disease severity score was comprised of erythema, skin thickening, and scaling, as measured by the change in ear thickness. Mice dosed with SFA-002 experienced a statistically significant reduction in the disease severity score and prevention of skin thickening. Compared to apremilast, mice dosed with SFA-002 showed decreased levels of IL-17A in the ear skin only and decreased levels of IL-23 in plasma and ear skin while mice dosed with apremilast showed no change in IL-23 levels. Treatment with SFA-002 also showed a positive trend in reduction of Transepidermal Water Loss (TEWL), a typical phenomenon of psoriatic skin lesions.

A poster entitled, "Effectiveness of SFA-002 to inhibit TH1/TH17 inflammation in an experimental skin model," will be available at the poster viewing session area in the exhibition hall Friday, March 7, through Sunday, March 9.

"The human psoriasis-like model is a unique T-cell driven model that allows to efficiently study the response of human skin to drugs for psoriasis. In this model, skin samples treated with SFA-002 displayed a statistically significant reduction in inflammation markers that is comparable to reductions observed in the existing psoriasis treatments of betamethasone and apremilast. With its novel mechanism of action and oral formulation, we are confident in SFA-002's potential to provide a meaningful impact to psoriasis patients," remarked Alla Arzumanyan, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer.

In the human psoriasis-like model, histology and cytokine release profiles were obtained from human skin samples treated with SFA-002, apremilast, or betamethasone over six days. At the conclusion of the study, samples treated with SFA-002 displayed improved structural integrity with noticeable reductions in epidermal separation compared to untreated samples. Compared to untreated samples, samples treated with SFA-002 displayed statistically significant decreases in IL-17A levels (80%) comparable to decreases in IL-17A levels in samples treated with betamethasone (70%) and apremilast (95%).

Both abstracts will be available on the American Academy of Dermatology website .

About SFA Therapeutics

SFA Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing oral small-molecule biosynthetic compounds for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Based on breakthrough research licensed from Temple University, SFA Therapeutics' platform has the potential to develop safer and more efficacious treatments for a number of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases by uniquely tailoring the effects of patented formulations with target-specific adjuvants. Its lead asset, SFA-002, an IL-10 up-regulator in immune cells, is approaching Phase 2 clinical trial and has shown promising Phase 1a and Phase 1b results for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. SFA Therapeutics has also received clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate SFA-001N in patients with Metabolic Dysfunction-associated Steatohepatitis (MASH), also known as Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), with or without fibrosis.

SFA Therapeutics is headquartered in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Please visit to learn more.

Company Contact

Ira Spector, Ph.D.
SFA Therapeutics, Inc.
+1 267-584-1080

Media Contacts

Tony Russo, Ph.D.
Russo Partners, LLC
[email protected]

Maddie Stabinski
Russo Partners, LLC
[email protected]

SOURCE SFA Therapeutics, Inc.

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