Spyre Therapeutics will no longer develop SPY072, its long acting anti-TL1A antibody, in rheumatic diseases. The company disclosed in its third quarter report that the Phase 2 SKYWAY basket trial missed its primary endpoints in both psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis. The psoriatic arthritis endpoint was ACR20 response and the axial spondyloarthritis endpoint was change in disease activity score. The drug was well tolerated. Spyre did not disclose response rates or effect sizes for either sub-study.
The arthritis programme was already weakened. In the rheumatoid arthritis sub-study reported in August 2026, the low dose met its primary endpoint but the high dose did not, and the company said the effect size fell short of its internal bar. SKYWAY was designed as a basket precisely to test how far TL1A biology reaches across inflammatory diseases, and the answer so far is that it reaches less far than the gut focused thesis assumed.
Spyre is redirecting SPY072 to hidradenitis suppurativa, a chronic skin condition where Merck’s anti-TL1A antibody tulisokibart recently produced positive Phase 2b data. Its Phase 2 SKYLIGHT trial, started in September, tests SPY072 combined with the IL-17A/F inhibitor bimekizumab, with Week 16 results planned for late 2027 or early 2028, and the company plans to move an anti-TL1A monotherapy into pivotal hidradenitis studies in 2027.
The company’s core programme is unchanged: the SKYLINE Phase 2 trial in ulcerative colitis, testing combinations of its long acting antibodies, with induction data expected in the third quarter of 2027 and enrolment in Part B running ahead of schedule.