Our science

Our approach

Faron is at the forefront of immunology and drug development, using our scientific and clinical development expertise to advance academic discoveries with the potential to disrupt the current treatment landscape.

Our pipeline offers a unique mode of action capable of modulating the tumor microenvironment and immune system, with the ambition of bringing new treatment options to a broader population of cancer patients.

The promise, and the gap, in immunotherapy

Immuno-oncology has become a mainstay of cancer treatment, but it does not work for everyone. Many common tumor types show primary resistance to current immunotherapies, while others develop adaptive or secondary resistance over time. Despite their success, most cancer patients do not benefit from currently available immunotherapies. Macrophages have been reported to be a key source of treatment resistance in many cancers.

Clever-1: a unique immune checkpoint

Macrophages are myeloid immune cells that play an essential role throughout the body, but they are also among the most abundant cells recruited into the tumor microenvironment: the ecosystem surrounding a tumor that helps it evade the immune system and grow.

Clever-1 (Common Lymphatic Endothelial and Vascular Endothelial Receptor 1) is an immunosuppressive receptor found on these macrophages. It contributes to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment associated with tumor progression and metastasis. Because Clever-1 acts on the innate immune system rather than T cells directly, it represents a biologically distinct approach that may be relevant for patients whose tumors do not respond to checkpoint inhibitors alone.

Our lead asset, bexmarilimab, is designed to target Clever-1 directly.

The first wave of immunotherapies changed the face of cancer care for those who responded. Faron’s ambition is to bring that promise to the patients the first wave left behind.