Science
Our focus is on therapeutics for indications with significant unmet medical needs
Our drug discovery processes are based on identifying and applying new scientific findings about mechanisms of action of potential drug candidates and their effects on cellular and biochemical pathways shared in multiple disease indications.
Escend implements multiple drug screening processes to accelerate drug discovery to maximize integrative biological screening, medicinal chemistry, and formulation design approaches to enable risk reduction strategies by identifying common cellular pathways among multiple cancers.
We select small molecule drug candidates with established safety profiles that have not yet achieved US marketing approval. We match these agents based on recent scientific evidence with disease indications, where their effects on specific cellular pathways can be exploited for the development of novel therapeutics.
These candidates are optimized utilizing applied medicinal chemistry and supportive formulation design to maximize their therapeutic effects for diseases with high unmet medical needs.
Research Strategy
Our focus is on oncology orphan indications targeting cancer leukemic stem cells (LCS) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
Our lead drug ES-3000 is an orally bioavailable small molecule that reduces leukemic stem cells through inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and CaMKIIγ. These regulators are involved in the development of leukemic stem cells which are a major cause of disease relapse and resistance to existing treatments. CaMKIIγ, a protein kinase, is a critical regulator of myeloid cell proliferation and high levels of β-catenin expression have been correlated to poor prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
ES-3000 has demonstrated pre-clinical activity in several blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and chronic myeloid leukemia (AML).
Development Strategy
Our strategy of identifying and matching foreign-approved drugs with established safety profiles with orphan diseases such as AML, MDS and CML, not only reduces development time and regulatory risk but also introduces important new treatment options to patients with relapsed and refractory diseases.
Escend intends to apply for the US FDA’s expedited approval program (21 CFR part 314, subpart H) for accelerated marketing approval for our drug candidates. .