Veralox Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a new class of therapies targeting the 12-lipoxygenase (12-LOX) pathway, announced  that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Nudge Therapeutics to acquire the company and their preclinical cyclic AMP-GMP (cGAS) inhibitor compounds.  The agreement allows Veralox to continue development of Nudge's compounds and trigger acquisition of the company upon achievement of downstream milestones. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We are excited because this agreement allows Nudge to utilize the expertise of Veralox to drive our cGAS program towards a clinical candidate," said Robert Lowery, CEO of Nudge Therapeutics and CEO of Bellbrook Labs. "Veralox has unique experience with these assets which can be utilized to move the program forward quickly."

"This is an exciting time for Veralox as we look to build on our expertise in developing novel therapeutics that address serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases," said Jonathan Mow, CEO of Veralox.  "The potential for cGAS inhibitors to treat a variety of inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune, metabolic, cardiovascular, rare diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases complements our novel approach to the development of VLX-1005."