ARTICLE | Product Development
Fibrosis meets new modalities on the translational horizon
As fibrosis companies look beyond small molecules, some are testing cell, gene and RNA therapies to tackle the disease in new ways
March 13, 2026 1:34 AM UTC
In the quest to treat fibrosis more effectively, translational research is moving beyond small molecule inhibitors of profibrotic and proinflammatory signaling pathways. It is beginning to explore new modalities that can intervene at multiple points in disease biology, offering multiplexed solutions that have potential to do what traditional approaches cannot.
Antifibrotic drug development has largely been restricted to small molecule inhibitors designed to slow the processes set in motion by tissue injury. The challenge is that the pathways linking epithelial injury to fibrotic damage are complex, redundant and often active in normal physiology...