Evestra Onkologia Sp. z o. o. awarded R&D Grant – $4.6 million supports endometriosis drug development

Evestra Onkologia Sp., has received a major research and development grant. The $4.6 million project, co-financed by the European Union Regional Development Fund, will support development of a drug – EC313 – designed to treat endometriosis.

Evestra is a San Antonio-based biopharmaceutical research and development company. Evestra Onkologia Sp. z o.o. is a Poland-based research and development company, dedicated to oncology therapeutics.

Dr. Maciej Wierzbicki and an experienced R&D team in Lodz, Poland are spearheading Evestra Onkologia Sp. and development of EC313. They will collaborate with Polish and international experts and opinion leaders.

“We are grateful to the Polish National Centre For Research and Development for awarding Evestra Onkologia this prestigious grant, and recognizing the innovative approach taken by Evestra to generate EC313 as a promising drug to treat endometriosis,” said Evestra President and CEO Ze’ev Shaked. “This grant validates the strategic approach we have taken to drug development since we launched Evestra in 2008.”

“EC313 was designed through intensive efforts in structure-activity relationships (SAR), which has led to a new generation of selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM) compounds and so-called mesoprogestins,” said Evestra’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Klaus Nickisch. “These mesoprogestins have an optimal tailor-made ratio of agonistic to antagonistic activity, which is required for a particular gynecological treatment.”

EC313 has demonstrated significant superiority over other SPRMs, Shaked said. Evestra completed the discovery work on EC313 and holds an international patent covering EC313 and other new chemical entities (NCE).

Endometriosis is a common gynecological condition affecting an estimated 10 percent of women of childbearing age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, endometriosis is when the kind of tissue that normally lines the uterus grows somewhere else such as on the ovaries, behind the uterus, on the bowels, or on the bladder. This “misplaced” tissue can cause pain, infertility and other problems.