Expansion of Scientific Affairs Group
pharmafile | March 30, 2023 | News story | Business Services |
Ellipses Pharma (“Ellipses”), a global drug development company focused on accelerating the development of cancer medicines and treatments through an innovative drug development model, today announces a significant expansion of its Scientific Affairs Group (SAG).
Ellipses now has more than 200 oncology experts from 106 institutions worldwide providing analysis and advice on selection of the most promising potential cancer medicines. The number of experts joining the SAG has increased by 53% in the last nine months.
The SAG now comprises 129 specialists in Europe, 53 in the United States and 19 in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East-North Africa (MENA) geographies.
Among the latest oncologists to join the SAG are: a Nobel Prize Laureate and Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (USA); a pioneer in breast cancer therapy who is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine & National Board of Medical Examiners; and an ovarian cancer expert and senior faculty member of the Leuven Cancer Institute (Belgium) who is one of the most published individuals for ovarian cancer and recipient of the Norwegian Kolstad, the Netherlands COBRA, and the Austrian Wertheim prizes, all for excellence in oncology.
Ellipses has built a cloud-based platform to crowdsource scientific and clinical insight from its key opinion leaders (KOLs) that allows them to provide responses anonymously. Responses are then blinded before being made available for review internally, ensuring the platform guards against groupthink, enables open expression of views, and mitigates the risk that Ellipses will value some opinions more highly than others.
Ellipses uses the platform in its due-diligence process before it in-licenses new assets. By gathering feedback from around 50 to 70 experts simultaneously on each asset, Ellipses’ investment team utilises the scientific consensus to de-risk the development of its drugs by better understanding data on potential acquisition targets, the indications a drug candidate could address, the right patient population to trial the drug in and how important a molecule could be for patients when approved.
Professor Sir Christopher Evans, OBE, Chairman, Ellipses Pharma, said:
“We are delighted and very proud that so many eminent oncologists from around the world have enthusiastically embraced what we believe is the largest scientific affairs group in oncology and a unique model. From the outset, our goal has been to streamline the cancer drug development process and our key opinion leaders are playing a vital role in helping us de-risk drug selection and advance high-quality assets quickly.”
Dr Rajan Jethwa, Chief Executive Officer, Ellipses Pharma, commented:
“The rapid growth and expansion in the membership of our Scientific Affairs Group is representative of the commitment of our team and the belief from our KOLs that our approach has significant potential. We are already seeing the results of this in the clinic as we work to bring more options to patients with cancer.”
