What Sixera Pharma Does
Sixera Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company based in Stockholm. The company was founded to develop basic research findings into treatments for skin diseases. Initially we are focusing on the development of a treatment for the rare skin disease Netherton syndrome.
About Netherton syndrome
What is Netherton syndrome?
Netherton syndrome (NS) is a rare genetic disease leading to severe skin inflammation and allergic manifestations. The number of newborns affected by the disease is estimated to be 5 per million worldwide, although some patients are never properly diagnosed due to the rarity of the disease.
Netherton syndrome (NS)
NS is characterized by a combination of three clinical manifestations:
Want to learn more about the symptons?
01.
Scaly redness of the skin
Congenital ichtyosiform erythroderma
02.
Hair shaft abnormality
Tricorrhexis invaginata
03.
Constant atopic manifestations
The disease is often severe and can be life threatening in newborns and infants. In newborns there is typically widespread redness of the skin, risk of loss of fluids and electrolytes as well as risk of severe infections. Skin lesions itch causing irritability and sleeplessness. Systemic and lung infections, persistent and chronic diarrhea, failure to thrive, growth retardation and short stature are common complications.
The skin condition usually improves with age and adults may present localized patches of redness and scaling, but it is still a severe disease with major impact on the quality of life for patients of all ages. The course of the disease is usually fluctuating.
Treatment
The frequent and regular use of emollients (creams) is essential to counteract the skin barrier defect. Patients usually have to apply skin creams to the whole body a couple of times per day. There are no targeted treatments available for Netherton syndrome.
Scientific Research
A growing number of genodermatoses (inheritable skin diseases) have been identified where the defective gene encodes a protease or protease inhibitor (de Veer et al. 2014). An important family of proteases in the granular and cornified layers of the epidermis is the kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs).
KLK7 (previously known as stratum corneum chymotryptic enzyme (SCCE)) was the first KLK protease detected in active form in the stratum corneum (Egelrud and Lundström 1991, Hansson et al. 1994), followed by KLK5 (Brattsand and Egelrud 1999, Ekholm et al. 2000), and KLK14 (Stefansson et al 2006).
Sixera Pharma and Netherton syndrome
Improving lives with our discovery
The founders of Sixera Pharma discovered key genes and the mechanisms regulating skin formation and barrier functions critical for the Netherton syndrome. The discovery resulted in the development of a new treatment of the disease, which is of great importance as no targeted treatment is available for the disease today. The new treatment is expected to drastically improve the quality of life for Netherton patients, which is an extremely vulnerable group of patients.
The clinical development of the treatment is carried out through a network of academic and industrial collaborations backed up by comprehensive pre-clinical work, along with development of regulatory documentation
- This means that children born with this genetic disease can survive and thrive and potentially get a normal life
A niche development company with narrow focus and a long history
The team is a combined group of experts in the field that wants to make a difference.
Sixera Pharma was founded in 2013, after our project had been spun out by Sobi to our founders Torbjörn Egelrud, Lennart Hansson and Jean Nordström. Torbjörn and Lennart worked on the project also prior to that, when it was part of the company Arexis – later to be acquired by Sobi.
We are always looking for new ways to connect
If you are in a position to help our project or know someone that should be on our team you can contact us here.
News from the team
Sixera initiates its first clinical trial of SXR1096 in Netherton Syndrome.
Sixera Pharma Receives Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPDD) from FDA for SXR1096 for treatment of Netherton syndrome
Stockholm, July 5, 2022. The Swedish biotech company, Sixera Pharma (”Sixera”) today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted rare pediatric
Sixera initiates its first clinical trial on SXR1096 in Netherton Syndrome
with the potential to be the first available treatment of the rare and serious skin disease Netherton syndrome Stockholm, December 7, 2021. The Swedish biotech
The start of something new
Welcome to our newly launched website were we will make it possible for you to follow our work and take part of insights from our
