GRI Bio Announces Partnership with the Respiratory Translational Research Collaboration to Advance Leading NKT Regulation Technology Targeting Earlier in the Inflammatory Cascade to Modulate Disease Progression

UK consortia brings together internationally recognized investigators in the UK's leading centers of excellence to carry out experimental and early phase research

Translational work to be conducted will provide GRI Bio additional data examining the role of NKT cells in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (“IPF”) from patients across the UK

GRI Bio rapidly advancing lead program, GRI-0621 a type 1 invariant NKT (“iNKT“) antagonist in development for the treatment of IPF

LA JOLLA, CA, Oct. 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GRI Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRI) (“GRI Bio” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company advancing an innovative pipeline of Natural Killer T (“NKT”) cell modulators for the treatment of inflammatory, fibrotic and autoimmune diseases, today announced it has entered into a collaboration with the UK consortia, National Institute for Health and Care Research Respiratory Translational Research Collaboration (“NIHR Respiratory TRC”) to advance its leading NKT regulation technology to treat inflammatory, fibrotic and autoimmune diseases.

IPF is a rare chronic progressive pulmonary disease with abnormal scarring of the lung blocking the movement of oxygen into the bloodstream. GRI Bio’s lead program, GRI-0621 is a small molecule RAR-βɣ dual agonist that inhibits the activity of human type 1, iNKT cells. In preliminary trials to date¹ and previous trials with the oral formulation, GRI-0621 has been shown to improve fibrosis in multiple disease models and improve liver function tests and other markers of inflammation and injury in patients. Together with the NIHR Respiratory TRC, GRI Bio will design and execute complex multi-center studies that accelerate research for the benefit of respiratory disease patients. 

“As a Company, we are dedicated to revolutionizing the way that inflammatory, fibrotic and autoimmune diseases like IPF are treated. The establishment of this collaboration represents another important step forward as we work to advance our clinical development programs. The NIHR Respiratory TRC offers cutting-edge translational research that we believe will assist in executing clinical studies underpinned by excellent scientific rigor. The expertise of the team, as well as the additional data examining the role of NKT cells in IPF from UK patients will be a valuable asset as we continue to advance GRI-0621,” commented Marc Hertz, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of GRI Bio. “