Medicines designed to restore muscle.

Muscular dystrophies: when muscle breakdown outpaces repair

Muscle health exists as a dynamic balance between growth and breakdown guided by protein and metabolic signals. In conditions of disease and in aging, those signals weaken, impairing an individual's ability to regenerate muscle normally. Many genetically distinct muscular dystrophies converge on a common phenotype of repeated muscle injury, impaired regeneration with progressive loss of skeletal muscle, and replacement with fat and fibrosis. Progressive muscle weakness can impact the upper and lower body at different times or in specific muscles that affect movement, swallowing, breathing, sight, and heart function. About 1 in 2,100 people are estimated to be living with DM1 worldwide (Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation).

JUV-161: a naturally secreted regenerative signal, engineered as medicine

JUV-161 is derived from IGF2, a growth factor that human stem cells normally secrete to direct muscle formation or repair. Juvena's JuvNET platform decodes thousands of these secreted proteins and engineers the most promising into medicines.

From platform to patients: Phase 1 complete, a Phase 1/Phase 2 study now enrolling

JUV-161 was discovered with JuvNET, received FDA orphan drug designation for DM1 in January 2024, completed Phase 1 development in healthy volunteers, and is being evaluated in a Phase 1/Phase 2 study of experimentally induced muscle atrophy in healthy volunteers aged 40 to 65. Later-stage studies lie ahead. It is an investigational medicine: the safety and effectiveness have not been established, and it is not approved for use anywhere.

Regenerate tissues. Rejuvenate lives.

Juvena works alongside clinicians who care for people with muscle disease and with patient organizations like the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation.