Transforming Autoimmune
Disease Treatment

Artax Biopharma is transforming autoimmune disease treatment as a
biotechnology leader in autoimmune immunomodulation science.

Our Company

Our Science & Pipeline

Our Company


Artax Biopharma is transforming the treatment of T Cell mediated disease.

At Artax Biopharma, we believe nothing is more important than patients living their best lives. We are helping to make this vision possible by developing a new way to treat T Cell mediated diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, T Cell malignancies and induced T Cell pathologies.

From foundational research conducted in Spain, a revolutionary approach to modulating the activation of the T Cell Receptor was discovered. Now as leaders in the science of immunomodulation, we are dedicated to advancing our novel science in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Enabling patients to pursue their passions, live their dreams, and transforming the way T Cell mediated diseases are treated is what drives us at Artax Biopharma.

Our Science and Pipeline


A healthy immune system eliminates harmful foreign pathogens, while being tolerant of self-tissues and organs. The T Cell Receptor (or TCR) is central to healthy T Cell function and a well-functioning immune system.  When the immune system malfunctions and the TCR becomes dysregulated, T Cells behave abnormally, attacking a patient’s own tissues and organs.
This results in several T Cell mediated diseases:
  • Autoimmune diseases in which TCRs with higher affinity to self-antigens drives T Cell Activation and cytokine production
  • T Cell malignancies in which the TCRs with higher affinity to self-antigens provides higher input to survival signaling, contributing to resistance to chemotherapy treatment in T Cell lymphomas
  • Induced T Cell pathologies. Drug treatments and medical procedures can often induce serious T Cell pathologies. This includes organ and stem cell transplantation procedures often resulting in major histocompatibility class mismatch and TCR activation causing both graft-vs-host-disease and organ transplant rejection. Separately, immune-oncology therapies often result in loss of PD-1 counterbalance of endogenous TCR signaling and over-response of T Cells to self-antigens leading to immune-oncology patients experiencing immune related adverse events.

Nck is an adaptor protein which plays a direct role in T Cell Mediated diseases.  Nck directly amplifies TCR responses, and the dysregulated TCR signaling which contributes to T Cell mediated diseases.
Artax Biopharma is developing first-in-class, oral small molecules that inhibit Nck binding to the TCR.  Through this novel mechanism, Artax’s Nck inhibitors selectively modulate Nck’s amplification of the TCR, resulting in a lower T Cell activation and lower T Cell response.  Artax believes this process of immunomodulation – during which our medicines assist the immune system to maintain healthy control and eliminate a direct cause of T Cell mediated diseases while not impacting patients’ ability to properly fight foreign pathogens – holds great potential.

Artax Pipeline

Artax is developing innovative small molecules that modulate the immune system. Artax science holds broad potential to treat T Cell-mediated diseases such as autoimmune diseases, induced T Cell pathologies (such as acute graft versus host disease and immune-oncology treatment-related adverse events) and T Cell malignancies (lymphomas), while simultaneously allowing the body to fight foreign pathogens.
AX-158 is a clinical-stage, first-in-class, oral, small molecule immunomodulating agent in Phase I development for the treatment of T Cell mediated diseases. Importantly, data suggests that AX-158 is not immunosuppressive and does not impact the immune system’s ability to mount a strong response to foreign pathogens and infections.

AX-158

AX-158 is a first-in-class, oral small molecule, preclinical immunomodulating agent in development for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. AX-158 employs a novel mechanism of action that selectively modulates, or adjusts, T Cell responses that play a critical role in immune system function. By selectively inhibiting Nck, a protein, AX-158 selectively modulates self-directed T Cell activation which is a cause of autoimmune disease.  Importantly, data suggests that AX-158 is not immunosuppressive and does not impact the immune system’s ability to mount a strong response to foreign pathogens and infections. Further, AX-158’s ability to modulate T Cell responses allows the possibility to broadly target several autoimmune diseases, therefore potentially transforming autoimmune disease treatment.

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1 Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142

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