Emtora Biosciences, a San Antonio, Texas-based clinical stage life science company, will receive a Seed Award grant totaling $3m.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) provided the funding.
The grant will support a Phase 2a trial of the company’s lead drug candidate, eRapaTM, in the treatment of the rare disease Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP).
Led by Dr. Carole Spangler Vaughn, CEO, Emtora Biosciences is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company which holds the exclusive license to eRapa, an improved, targeted formulation of rapamycin originally developed at UT Health San Antonio that is being investigated to prevent cancer and other age-related medical conditions.
The company has demonstrated in preclinical studies that eRapa can prevent the formation of polyps in a mouse model for FAP, thus preventing the progression to colon cancer. It has made progress towards validating this target indication including obtaining approval for a 505 (b)(2) abbreviated regulatory pathway, filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application, gaining safety and dose information in an ongoing Phase Ib clinical study.
The grant will support a Phase 2a study of oral eRapa in 30 FAP patients to verify efficacy in humans. The study will measure eRapa’s ability to impact the number and size of polyps over a 12-month course of treatment.
FinSMEs
27/08/2019