Janssen is committed to leveraging a pathway approach to help restore balance to the immune system, which in people living with autoimmune diseases responds by attacking healthy tissues. As part of this strategy, Janssen is actively studying of the role of the interleukin (IL)-23 pathway and how its inhibition can help prevent immune cells from triggering symptoms of disease.

IL-23 is a pro-inflammatory cell-signaling cytokine that acts as a messenger to alert the immune system when something is wrong, such as tissue damage, triggering inflammation. Problems occur when there is overproduction or hyper-responsiveness to IL-23, despite the absence of tissue damage, resulting in immune-mediated inflammatory disease. Through continued research, our team is working to advance the inhibition of IL-23, moving away from broad immune suppression to restore the balance of the immune system with the goal of achieving long-term remission for patients.