ESSA is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for the treatment of prostate cancer. ESSA’s lead clinical candidate, EPI-7386, represents a new approach to disrupting androgen receptor signaling pathway, the primary driver of prostate cancer growth.
ESSA’s investigational therapies are designed to disrupt the androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathway, the primary pathway that drives prostate cancer growth, and prevent AR activation through selective binding to the N-terminal domain, a region of the AR that is not currently targeted by other therapies.
ESSA is currently conducting a monotherapy Phase 1 open-label clinical trial with EPI-7386 for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
ESSA is also conducting a Phase 1/2 study of EPI-7386 in combination with enzalutamide in patients with metastatic CRPC who have not yet been treated with second-generation antiandrogen therapies.
AR is activated by androgen binding to the LBD which induces the dimerization and nuclear translocation of the AR. Activated AR then regulates the expression of genes involved in prostate cancer progression.
Current AR-targeted therapies work directly or indirectly through the LBD of the AR
Anitens target the NTD of the AR and can inhibit AR transcriptional activity
Anitens are active against AR forms missing the LBD and therefore, can bypass many resistance mechanisms to current AR-targeted therapies.
