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Small-molecule integrin inhibitors are catching the attention of pharmaceutical firms, with fibrosis joining gut dysfunction as a key indication for integrin-based interventions.
Tim Springer, an immunologist at Harvard, is no stranger to the trials of drug discovery. After he founded his first company, LeukoSite, in 1992 to work on the biology of integrins, it took another 22 years for LeukoSite’s work — acquired by Millennium and then Takeda — to result in the approval of the first-in-class α4β7-targeting vedolizumab. That drug is now Takeda’s top-selling product, on track to earn the company more than US$3 billion in 2020 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.