Ellipses Pharma Limited (“Ellipses”), a global drug development company focused on accelerating the development of cancer treatments through an innovative drug development model, announced today it has inaugurated the first large-scale Phase 1/2 oncology clinical study of its kind in the United Arab Emirates, marking a significant milestone in the region’s healthcare landscape.
Following approval by the UAE regulators and the Ministry and Department of Health, this study will be conducted initially at two major healthcare centres in Abu Dhabi – the Cleveland Clinic and Tawam Hospital. The inclusion of a third study centre is pending. Patient recruitment has commenced.
The trial will focus on Ellipses’ next generation selective RET inhibitor (SRI), EP0031/A400, a potential treatment of RET-altered tumours, most prevalent in non-small cell lung cancer and thyroid cancer.
Professor Sir Christopher Evans, OBE, Executive Chairman, Ellipses, said: “Our mission to find outstanding potential cancer treatments and develop them at pace has been made possible in a very large part by the unwavering support we have had from our investors in Abu Dhabi who embraced the Ellipses model and vision from its early stages.
“This tremendous commitment has led us to the point where our achievements can be brought to bear for the potential benefit of patients in UAE. In many ways, we can now bring hope and an innovative therapy to people in the UAE and also enable healthcare professionals to collaborate and share research. This trial is the first of many trials we hope to conduct in the region.”
Sir Chris is one of several global life sciences and healthcare experts on the Advisory Board of M42, the pioneering Abu Dhabi based tech enabled company, which is supporting the Ellipses initiative, and serves on the board of directors of the Emirates Drug Establishment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Orphan Drug Designation to EP0031/A400 in November 2023 and in March of this year granted it Fast Track Designation, which facilitates the expedited development and review of new drugs intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions and demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs.
Professor Tobias Arkenau, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Ellipses commented: “The opening of the EP0031/A400 trial in the UAE is a very exciting initiative. Through trials carried out to date, our belief has been reinforced that EP0031/A400 has the potential to be a transformational next generation RET inhibitor – in particular for patients with RET-positive NSCLC and thyroid cancers, which remain a progressive and fatal condition for hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide.”
