If you are interested in partnering with us, or would like to learn more about our mission in action, please click below to learn about our therapeutic areas of research and development:
Our Therapeutic Areas
Evestra’s proprietary products are based on two enabling technologies, these are medicinal chemistry and vaginal ring technology. Both technologies are supported by GMP manufacturing of APIs and Drug Products. Evestra’s product pipeline includes pre-clinical and clinical-stage products, and all Evestra products are protected by broad US and international issued patents.
Fertility Control
- Contraceptive Status of Women in the US: 47 million women aged 15-49 in the U.S. are currently using contraception; clinicians have seen a rise in patients seeking consultation for conception over recent years.
- Notably, reports have shown women choosing in addition to the daily pill, long-acting reversible methods, such as longer-acting subQ/IM injectables, implants and IUDs. The overall market for longer-term active contraceptive devices has significantly continued to grow in the last decade.
- A 2019 United Nations survey suggests 56% of European women of reproductive age are using contraception – this stat is higher in Northern Europe (68.4%) and Western Europe (61%) and lower in Eastern Europe (50.2%) and Southern Europe (53.9%)
- Evestra has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop EC625 as an innovative fertility control product to address unmet medical need as it pertains to longer-term subQ injectable contraceptive for developing and developed countries.
Endometriosis
- Overview: ~7.3 million, or about 10%, of women of reproductive age in the U.S., have endometriosis and ~5.5 million or ~75%, are symptomatic.
- Family history, early menarche, short menstrual cycles, long duration of menstruation, and heavy bleeding are common risk factors.
- In Europe, based on ~163 million women of reproductive age have endometriosis and ~12 million are symptomatic [ZS1]
- Evestra Onkologia in collaboration with Evestra Inc. is developing EC313, an innovative orally-bioavailable mesoprogestin, for the treatment of endometriosis. To read more about Evestra Onkologia’s efforts with EC313 click the green button below to be redirected to their website.
Fibroids
- Uterine fibroids are estimated to be the most common benign pelvic tumors in women, impacting approximately 20-30% of women by the time they reach menopause.
- They are non-cancerous, muscle tissue tumors of the uterus that are responsive to estrogen and progesterone.
- Risk factors include age, demographics, obesity, infertility, or being nulliparous*
- Evestra Inc. is developing EVE132 as an innovative vaginal ring product for the treatment of uterine fibroids
Hormone Replacement Therapy
- Vulvovaginal Atrophy (VVA) Overview: VVA is associated with decreased estrogen that affects ~50% of post-menopausal women (~31.1M women in the U.S.), but only half consult their physician for VVA symptoms.
- Vaginal lining becomes thinner and less elastic as blood flow and secretions diminish.
- Low levels of estrogen affect urinary tract structures, which are derived from the same cell structure as the genital tract, and contain estrogen receptors
- VVA can occur at any point in a woman’s life, but more commonly affects women in the post-menopausal phase when estrogen levels decline.
- Evestra is developing EVE135 as an innovative vaginal ring product to treat vulvovaginal atrophy.
Overactive Bladder
- Overactive Bladder affects ~21 million women in the U.S., but only 45% seek treatment.
- OAB is a syndrome defined by frequent and sudden urges to urinate that is difficult to control.
- OAB is caused by involuntary movement of the bladder muscles even when urine volume is low, which causes the urgent need to urinate.
- An estimated 21 million adult women >18 years old suffer from OAB symptoms in the U.S. and only 45% of patients discuss OAB symptoms with a physician.
- Evestra is developing EVE133 as an innovative vaginal ring product to treat overactive bladder.
LIF/LIFR
- Inhibition of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF) can serve as a potential future anti-tumor treatments for Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, and Pancreatic Cancer. LIF is a pleiotropic protein that belongs to the interleukin – 6 family cytokines and is necessary for maintaining the pluripotency state of embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.
- LIF exerts its actions through binding to LIF Receptors (LIFR) located on the cell surface. -LIFR is a heterodimeric recepter comprised of LIFR and gp130 subunits.
- LIF also drives immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. -Supports self-renewal of cancer stem cells and thereby plays a role in the development and progression of several cancers. -LIF and LIFR are expressed in about 80% of human breast cancers specifically.
- Furthermore, the possibility the LIF levels could be measured in patient’s blood to predict potential responders and that STAT3 phosphorylation in tumors may predict treatment response provides the opportunity for the development of a companion diagnostic.
- Evestra is developing EC359 as an innovative injectable anticancer product to treat a variety of cancers as outlined below. A novel orally bioavailable LIF/LIFR antagonist is also in development.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer
- TNBC is more aggressive and has a poor prognosis compared to other breast cancer subtypes, in part due to a lack of effective targeted therapies.
- TNBC is more likely to be diagnosed in younger women, those of African-American or Hispanic descent, or those with a BRCA1 mutation.
- The majority of breast cancer cases are diagnosed as localized diseases and have favorable 5-year survival statistics; 99% all-comers vs. 91% TNBC.
- Survival statistics between general breast cancer vs. only TNBC significantly diverge at Stage III/IV disease.
- Chemotherapy is recommended for the general population, while PARP inhibitors and immunotherapies are approved for select TNBC patients
Ovarian Cancer
- OC relatively uncommon, with ~22K diagnoses per year; most cases are diagnosed late with a high risk of recurrence
- Major risk factors include family history of breast cancer and/or OC, endometriosis, obesity, and use of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy
- Most cases are diagnosed later stage (Stage III/IV) due to a lack of effective screening methods or specific symptoms
- Ovarian cancer cases and deaths are declining in part due to oral contraceptive use ~2.5% decrease in age-adjusted rates in the past decade for new cases
- 2% decrease in age-adjusted death rates each year over the past decade
Pancreatic Cancer
- More than half of the ~55k pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cases diagnosed each year are metastatic; five-year survival rates are low, even for those diagnosed early stage
- 95% of cases (~55k) are pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) arising from exocrine cells
- The remaining 5% are neuroendocrine tumors, which have a different treatment algorithm and somewhat better prognosis
- Most patients are diagnosed late stage, and even those diagnosed with early-stage disease have a very high risk of disease recurrence
- Little progress has been made in improving PDAC outcomes, with the age-adjusted death rate increasing 0.3%
