CONQUEST Advances
About CONQUEST
When working on a rare disease like scleroderma, building a strong pipeline of new treatments is a challenge for scientists and pharmaceutical companies alike. The SRF recognized this as a critical issue for our community and created CONQUEST—a global clinical trial—to address it.
In a conventional clinical trial, researchers test one drug at a time, which can be a slow and resource-intensive process. CONQUEST’s design—the first of its kind in autoimmune diseases—allows multiple investigational study drugs to be evaluated at the same time, using a shared infrastructure and a single placebo group.
This model was pioneered in oncology before we adapted it for scleroderma, and no one else has tried it in rheumatology. By bringing it to our community, the SRF is helping to set a new standard for how research moves forward.
With CONQUEST, we’ve done something no scleroderma nonprofit has before: united researchers across five continents in a coordinated effort to find better treatments.
The Goal of CONQUEST
The end goal of CONQUEST is to determine whether the study medications are safe and effective. CONQUEST is a perpetual trial, meaning it will continue to run over the coming years.
By the end of 2025, CONQUEST had enrolled patients in over 20 countries, to evaluate two investigational study drugs for scleroderma-associated interstitial lung disease. Over time, CONQUEST plans to look at more investigational study drugs for other aspects of systemic sclerosis.
CONQUEST, a Platform Clinical Trial (2023)
Get acquainted with CONQUEST, an innovative platform trial designed to rapidly evaluate promising treatments for scleroderma-associated lung disease.
The CONQUEST Steering Committee – A Trial Guided by Experts in the Field
To ensure that CONQUEST meets the highest standards of quality, the Scleroderma Research Foundation has assembled an expert team to guide and implement this innovative trial.
Dinesh Khanna, MD, MSc, Co-Chair
University of Michigan School of Medicine
Toby Maher, MD, PhD, Co-Chair
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Yannick Allanore, MD, PhD
Hôpital Cochin
Shervin Assassi, MD, MS
McGovern Medical School, UTHealth Houston
Murray Baron, MD
Jewish General Hospital/McGill University
Elana Bernstein, MD
Columbia University
Vincent Cottin, MD, PhD
Louis Pradel University Hospital/Claude Bernard University
Francesco del Galdo, MD, PhD
University of Leeds
Christopher Denton, PhD
Royal Free Hospital/University College London
Jeska de Vries-Bouwstra, MD, PhD
Leiden University Medical Centre
Oliver Distler, MD
University Hospital Zurich
Tracy Frech, MD, MS
Vanderbilt Health
Jessica Gordon, MD
Hospital for Special Surgery
Kristin Highland, MD
Cleveland Clinic
Anna-Maria Hoffmann-Vold, MD, PhD
Oslo University Hospital
Laura Hummers, MD
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Yasuhiro Kondoh, MD, PhD
Aichi Medical University
Masataka Kuwana, MD, PhD
Nippon Medical School
Marco Matucci-Cerinic, MD, PhD
Careggi University Hospital/University of Florence
Virginia Steen, MD
Georgetown University Medical Center
Luke Evnin, PhD, SRF representative non-voting member
Scleroderma Research Foundation
Greg Gordon, MD, JD, Non-voting member
Scleroderma Research Foundation, CONQUEST Study Team
CONQUEST FAQs
There are no costs for participating in the CONQUEST study. The Scleroderma Research Foundation will offer travel support and reimbursement through Medpace Patient Concierge Services (PCS).
The goal with all clinical trials is to be as inclusive as possible. However, it is necessary to develop some inclusion and exclusion criteria. These allow researchers to perform a credible study to determine if a new drug can successfully treat a disease, such as scleroderma.
In most clinical trials, some participants receive active treatment, while others receive a matching placebo treatment. The inclusion and exclusion criteria are used to ensure that these two groups of participants are similar to one another. This way, any difference in disease outcome during the trial is truly due to the study treatment.
Right now, CONQUEST focuses on individuals with scleroderma who have had it for 7 years or less and who also have a diagnosis of interstitial lung disease.
With any clinical trial, the goal is to be as inclusive as possible. For CONQUEST, any diseases a person has in addition to scleroderma will be reviewed by the investigators to determine if they impact potential eligibility for the study.
At this stage, individuals with a diagnosis of scleroderma with an onset of less than or equal to 7 years (≤7 years) prior to the screening visit may be candidates for CONQUEST. The length of time of active scleroderma is defined as the time from the onset of the first non-Raynaud’s symptom.
If you’re not sure how long it has been since your first symptom, the trial investigator can discuss it with your physician as part of the screening process.
Participation in the CONQUEST study is voluntary. You can leave at any time. You always have the right to withdraw for any reason without penalty or loss of access to your regular medical care. Your safety and autonomy remain a priority throughout the study.
The Latest News & Stories About CONQUEST
Contact Information
Please email info@conquestssc.org.