Aurigene, a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing drugs for oncology and inflammatory disorders, announced that it has commenced dosing in INDUS, a Phase 1 trial of AUR-101 in healthy volunteers. The study is designed to evaluate the safety signals, pharmacodynamic modulation, and recommended dosage for Phase 2 studies (RP2D).

AUR-101 is a selective, potent inverse agonist of the receptor RoRγt, designed as an oral agent for the treatment of IL17-driven immunological conditions, including psoriasis. Aurigene expects data from the INDUS study to be available by December 2018.

Aurigene currently has three programs from its pipeline in clinical development. Aurigene's oral PD-L1/ VISTA antagonist CA-170 is currently in Phase 2 clinical development in India.

Commenting on the trial, CSN Murthy, CEO of Aurigene said: "This is the first study of the planned global clinical development for AUR-101; we are excited to have started the clinical evaluation of the compound and expect to mirror the excellent results seen in established pre-clinical disease models".