More than 23 million people in the U.S. suffer from rare and prevalent inflammatory diseases, including Still’s disease, idiopathic pulmonary disease – a type of lung disease that results in scarring of the lungs – and the rare skin condition bullous pemphigoid. But one Durham startup company is working to improve the lives of those patients with inflammatory diseases.

IMMvention Therapeutix is discovering and developing novel disease-modifying therapies that inhibit the inflammation caused by activation of the inflammasomes in inflammatory diseases. Led by CEO Anil Goyal, Ph.D., the company is making significant strides in treatments. The company’s name aptly comes from a combination of the words “immune” and “intervention.”

“We are working to improve the quality of life for those affected patients by removing the inflammation that causes inflammatory diseases, creating new treatments for both rare and prevalent diseases such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis,” says Goyal. “Looking ahead, we are also targeting diseases that affect the brain, like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.”

IMMvention Therapeutix was co-founded by several leading researchers in the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, including Jenny Ting, Ph.D., who is a preeminent scientific leader in immunology, innate immunity and inflammasomes. Although the company has only been around for two years, it is making its mark on the industry through the leadership of its experienced team. The company won LaunchBio’s Durham regional pennant and a spot in its Big Pitch national championship, a quick-pitch competition for the most promising biotech startups in the U.S.

“We were fortunate to win the pennant in Durham and to compete with companies from Cambridge and San Diego in the national championship,” says Goyal. “Although we didn’t win the national title, for me – the winning was the exposure we gained with potential investors all over the nation.”

IMMvention Therapeutix marks Goyal’s sixth company out of UNC-Chapel Hill. In early 2010, Goyal was looking for new opportunities when he had a chance meeting with Jackie Quay, director of licensing and innovation support at the UNC Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), at their kids’ elementary school. That chance meeting led to a conversation with Leaf Huang, Ph.D., in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, which ultimately led to Goyal’s first UNC-based company Qualiber, in July 2010.

Since then, Goyal has been involved in many UNC startups and has built solid relationships with KickStart Venture Services (KVS) and the University’s OTC team along the way. KickStart Venture Services, a core program of Innovate Carolina, is the University-wide initiative for innovation and entrepreneurship at UNC-Chapel Hill. KickStart Venture Services offers its own commercialization awards to Carolina IP-based companies and, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, KVS is offering startups a variety of services: from the coaching, advisement and connections it normally provides to pandemic-specific support like helping companies pivot existing technologies toward COVID-19, write grants for COVID-related federal grants and plan for future physical space needs.