ASC50

ASC50 is an oral small molecule inhibitor of interleukin-17 (IL-17), discovered and developed in-house by Ascletis Pharma. It is designed for the treatment of multiple autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, with a primary focus on mild-to-moderate plaque psoriasis. ASC50 was developed using Ascletis' proprietary Artificial Intelligence-assisted Structure-Based Drug Discovery (AISBDD) platform, making it the first immunology candidate from this platform to reach clinical development. Preclinical studies demonstrated that ASC50 has higher drug exposure, longer half-life, and lower clearance compared to other oral IL-17 inhibitors in development, as well as strong efficacy in animal models of psoriasis. The drug targets IL-17—a cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of psoriasis and other chronic inflammatory diseases—and aims to provide a convenient oral alternative to injectable biologics targeting the same pathway[1][3][5][6].