Allison DeAngelis is the East Coast biotech and venture capital reporter at STAT, reporting where scientific ideas and money meet. She is also co-host of the weekly biotech podcast, The Readout Loud. You can reach Allison on Signal at AllisonDeAngelis.01.

An inflammatory bowel disease treatment developed by Spyre Therapeutics succeeded in its first major test, setting the company up to compete with several large drugmakers developing new medicines for the chronic digestive condition.

Spyre is currently running a Phase 2 trial testing three experimental ulcerative colitis drugs as standalone treatments and, eventually, as combination therapies. The company released the first batch of results Monday on one of the treatments, showing it was safe and met the primary goal of the study.

The therapy, SPY001, targets the alpha 4 beta 7 inflammation pathway, one of the emerging avenues drugmakers are probing to reduce inflammation in the gut. In Spyre’s SKYLINE study, subjects taking SPY001 saw a 9.2 point decrease in a disease activity index. Approximately 40% of the trial subjects went into remission after 12 weeks of use.

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