MoonLake Immunotherapeutics and Komodo Health to Partner to Improve Research on Inflammatory Skin Conditions

Hidradenitis suppurativa of axilla

Credit: DermNet

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics and Komodo Health recently announced their new technology partnership to advance research and treatments of inflammatory skin and joint diseases. MoonLake is currently developing sonelokimab for the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis. MoonLake and Komodo’s collaboration will help to increase the impact of sonelokimab for disease states with high unmet patient needs.¹

The 3-year technology partnership will use Komodo’s Healthcare Map and platform technologies to enable data-driven decision-making throughout MoonLake’s clinical operations, medical, marketing, and market access departments. Komodo’s data and technology applications will support MoonLake’s market research, clinical trial site selection, market strategies, and patient journey mapping. The new data collection will help increase the development of new treatment options and improve patient outcomes.

“We need an experienced technology partner that can help accelerate our disease insights for our clinical, medical, and commercial endeavors. Komodo’s data-driven intelligence is expected to be a critical tool as we work toward commercialization and delivering transformative therapies to patients,” said Tino Anthamatten, vice president of marketing, market access, and pricing at MoonLake, in the news release.

According to MoonLake, many life sciences companies face challenges when generating data-driven intelligence that can also support decision-making processes during the product’s life cycle. MoonLake also noted that it takes approximately 7 months to identify and integrate data sources before teams can begin to generate insights.

At MoonLake’s R&D Day last month, it was able to identify important hidradenitis suppurativa market data using Komodo’s software applications and Healthcare Map. According to the data, a real-world analysis of the US patient population revealed that between 2016 and 2023, 2 million unique patients were diagnosed and treated for hidradenitis suppurativa, not including undiagnosed and untreated patients. MoonLake and Komodo’s data also found that approximately 240,000 new patients are diagnosed and treated for hidradenitis suppurativa each year.

According to the companies, this data emphasizes the prevalence of hidradenitis suppurativa in the US. The real-world insights from Komodo validated a future hidradenitis suppurativa market size exceeding $10 billion by 2035. The companies stated that there is a notably low penetration of current biologics, approximately 3%, and a high dropout rate from hidradenitis suppurativa treatments within the first year, with a median treatment duration of 11 months in a real-world setting.

“Furthermore, these insights shed light on the challenges of care and that individuals living with HS are being lost in their treatment journey. Over 50-60% of patients take long-term antibiotics, and many are also prescribed steroids and/or opioids. This real-world perspective substantiates MoonLake’s market size estimates and highlights the need for more effective therapies,” wrote MoonLake and Komodo.

“We are thrilled to support MoonLake’s efforts to advance scientific innovation and gain a deeper understanding of patient journeys and unmet needs for people living with inflammatory diseases. As MoonLake expects to commence two phase 3 trials, we look forward to helping their teams utilize data an analytics to evaluate the market, develop their go-to-market and commercialization strategy and, most important, help quickly bring its Nanobody therapy to market, once approved, for patients who need it most,” said Web Sun, the president and co-founder of Komodo Health, in the news release.

Sonelokimab is a novel investigational~40 kDa humanized nanobody being investigated for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Nanobody technology consists of one or more domains based on the small antigen-binding variable regions of heavy-chain-only antibodies (VHH). Sonelokimab selectively binds with high affinity to IL-17A and IL-17F, inhibiting the naturally occurring IL-17A/A, IL‑17A/F, and IL-17F/F dimers that drive inflammation.²

References

1. MoonLake Immunotherapeutics inks three-year technology partnership with Komodo Health to advance research on inflammatory skin and joint conditions. News release. MoonLake Immunotherapeutics. April 10, 2024. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://ir.moonlaketx.com/press-releases
2. Sonelokimab: a novel investigational Nanobody for the treatment of inflammatory disease. MoonLake Immunotherapeutics. Accessed April 10, 2024.https://moonlaketx.com/science/