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Essa Pharma Inc (1)
Symbol EPI
Shares Issued 115,521,889
Close 2018-04-23 C$ 0.21
Market Cap C$ 24,259,597
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Essa appoints Le Moigne senior director, preclinical

2018-04-24 09:12 ET - News Release

Mr. David Parkinson reports

ESSA PHARMA ENHANCES R&D CAPABILITIES WITH TWO NEW KEY HIRES

Essa Pharma Inc. has appointed Dr. Han-Jie Zhou, PhD, vice-president, chemistry and chemistry manufacturing and control, and Dr. Ronan Le Moigne, PhD, senior director, preclinical.

"I am pleased to welcome Drs. Zhou and Le Moigne to Essa," said David R. Parkinson, Essa Pharma's president and chief executive officer. "We are progressing with multiple preclinical characterization studies in order to select a next-generation clinical candidate to advance our aniten N-terminal domain inhibitor program and are excited to expand our R&D capabilities with the appointment of these two senior researchers. We look forward to leveraging their expertise as we advance towards clinical development."

Dr. Zhou has more than 18 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and development including medicinal and process chemistry, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, chemistry manufacturing and control, project management, and global outsourcing. Prior to joining Essa, he was vice-president of chemistry at Cleave Biosciences, group leader at Proteolix and scientist at Cytokinetics. Over his career, he contributed to the discovery and development of KYPROLIS (carfilzomib), ONX0914 and omecamtiv mecarbil. Dr. Zhou earned his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Holton at Florida State University. He is a named inventor and author on more than 35 patents and publications.

Dr. Le Moigne has more than 12 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and development, including target validation, clinical candidate selection, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationships, toxicology, and biomarker development. Prior to joining Essa, he served as senior director of pharmacology at Cleave Biosciences, and previously held scientific roles at Sanofi, where Dr. Le Moigne supported the advancement of small molecules and antibodies in preclinical development. He also supported the clinical development of ZALTRAP (aflibercept), a VEGF Trap biologic. Dr. Le Moigne earned his PhD in pharmacology from the University Paris XI, France.

About Essa Pharma Inc.

Essa is a preclinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel and proprietary therapies for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in patients whose disease is progressing despite treatment with current therapies. Essa believes that its proprietary compounds can significantly expand the interval of time in which patients suffering from CRPC can benefit from hormone-based therapies, by disrupting the androgen-receptor-(AR)-signalling pathway that drives prostate cancer growth and by preventing AR transcriptional activity by binding selectively to the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the AR. A functional NTD is essential for transactivation of the AR. In preclinical studies, blocking the NTD has demonstrated the capability to overcome the known AR-dependent mechanisms of CRPC.

About prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the second-most commonly diagnosed cancer among men and the fifth-most common cause of male cancer death worldwide (Globocan, 2012). Adenocarcinoma of the prostate is dependent on androgen for tumour progression, and depleting or blocking androgen action has been a mainstay of hormonal treatment for over six decades. Although tumours are often initially sensitive to medical or surgical therapies that decrease levels of testosterone, disease progression despite castrate levels of testosterone generally represents a transition to the lethal variant of the disease, metastatic CPRC (mCRPC), and most patients ultimately succumb to the illness. The treatment of mCRPC patients has evolved rapidly over the past five years. Despite these advances, additional treatment options are needed to improve clinical outcomes in patients, particularly those who fail existing treatments, including abiraterone or enzalutamide, or those who have contraindications to receive those drugs. Over time, patients with mCRPC generally experience continued disease progression, worsening pain, leading to substantial morbidity and limited survival rates. In both in vitro and in vivo animal studies, Essa's novel approach to blocking the androgen pathway has been shown to be effective in blocking tumour growth when current therapies are no longer effective.

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