science

Cancer is a disease characterized by an abnormal and often uncontrollable proliferation of the body’s cells. Deaths from cancer represent around one eighth of all deaths (World Cancer Report, 2014).

The global oncology market represents the largest therapeutic area with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% during the past five years, reaching global sales of over US $91 billion in 2013 ( Innovation in Cancer Care and Implications for Health Systems, by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics).

This growth is due to several factors, among which: (i) the global spread of market drivers such as population ageing and western-style diets and lifestyles; (ii) improved patient access to cancer treatments; (iii) increasing sophistication (and hence the cost!) of small molecule and biological anti-cancer therapies.

Drawing on a range of core competencies including phenotypical and “traditional” high-throughput screening, microscopy, chemistry R&D, medicinal chemistry, molecular modeling and animal cancer models, Ecrins Therapeutics discovers and develops bioactive small molecules.

Prior to the creation of Ecrins Therapeutics, the founders of the company, working at Inserm (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), and in collaboration with chemists of the Institut Curie (Paris), launched a project aiming to uncover novel regulators of cell division, and its “engine”, the mitotic spindle. By definition, research on cell division is almost synonymous with studies on cancer cell proliferation; hence any small molecule interfering with cell division becomes a potential drug candidate.

Using proprietary cell phenotype-based screening, our team discovered a series of bioactive small molecules. We went on to establish a "proof of concept" for their activity both in vitro against human cancer cells and in vivo in the animal models of cancer, leading to a patent put in place by the Joseph Fourier University and the Institut Curie/CNRS. This technology, licensed-in from the above academic institutions, formed the basis on which Ecrins Therapeutics was launched.

All of the Ecrins Therapeutics’ drug candidates emanate from discoveries made using our drug discovery platform. In particularly, we made use of our knowledge of cell biology and live-cell microscopy to identify compounds active in cancer-related pathways. For this, we screened diverse chemical compound libraries, acquired from both academic and commercial sources. Using proprietary drug discovery algorithms, we were able to identify and select bioactive molecules faster and with better properties, than following “traditional” drug screening approaches.