Edison Oncology Holding
Accelerating Novel Cancer Therapies

Oncologists have long been engaged in a critical race against time to deliver the right cancer treatment to patients. Treating each type of cancer involves fighting the intrinsic nature of the cancer cell—its deep-coded tendency to grow uncontrollably and mutate when faced with a threat. This necessitates continuous innovation in cancer medicine.

Edison Oncology Holding Corp. is on a steadfast mission to develop and market novel cancer therapies and expedite their market approval. While starting the drug discovery from scratch is time-consuming and expensive, Edison Oncology’s ability to repurpose existing drug candidates to treat cancer with exceptional precision opens up exciting possibilities. The company has a steady pipeline of partially developed clinical-stage drug candidates with supported human clinical data and known safety profiles to provide the perfect antidote for the deadly disease.

Promising candidates are repurposed as precision medicine for specific types of cancers by leveraging the latest scientific knowledge and cutting-edge tools. The reduced time and cost associated with testing and advancing these candidates significantly accelerate their availability to physicians and patients.

Leveraging a deep understanding of tumor biology and cancer drug pharmacology, Edison Oncology targets cancer patients with a specific biomarker or mutation that leverages the drug’s mechanism of action. With this groundbreaking approach to revolutionizing precision medicine, it stands as a beacon of hope in providing important new cancer therapeutics.

“We are confident in bringing novel precision cancer treatments to benefit patients at the earliest possible time,” says Jeffrey Bacha, CEO.

Finding the Right Therapeutic Fit

Edison Oncology’s innovative approach to cancer therapy is rooted in the vision of Dr. Dennis Brown, co-founder and chairman of the board, whose expertise in precision medicine spans more than four decades. His research portfolio contains numerous, potent drug candidates that were sidelined at an underdeveloped stage, as existing understanding of cancer biology at that time prevented further exploration of their potential.

With the availability of advanced biological sciences and modern tools like CRISPR, Dr. Brown revisited an underdeveloped drug that was studied in the seventies. His team at ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company he founded, discovered that this drug could be highly effective among leukemia patients with a key mutation. Following the FDA’s approval, Teva Pharmaceuticals, which acquired Chemgenex, released the drug into the market. Today, the precision drug is a boon for countless leukemia patients.

Dr. Brown’s expertise is reflected in Edison Oncology’s meticulous drug discovery process. Upon finding a probable drug candidate, the team uses modern biological tools to delve deep into its mechanism of action. It looks into the clinical data and safety profile to uncover past evidence of activity against cancer.

If a potential candidate is discovered, the team searches for a relevant biomarker or a mutation in cancer patients that correlates with the drug’s activity. This information is used to target the therapy and select patients who are more likely to respond to treatment, enabling faster drug development.

A Robust Pipeline of Innovative Drug Candidates

Through its diligent R&D efforts, Edison Oncology has amassed a database of initial drug candidates. Prime among them are Orotecan, EO3001, and EO1001—for which the company has designed robust clinical development programs.

The Orotecan program is designed to improve the delivery and reduce the side effect profile of a potent drug for tumors in children. The synonymous drug is a novel oral formulation of irinotecan for pediatric and adult malignancies.
Edison Oncology partners with major academic medical centers across the globe to reduce clinical trial costs and expedite R&D efforts. These collaborations have also proven advantageous in testing drug candidates with limited or no prior clinical data while distributing the risks associated with the discovery process of highly complex drugs.

The company is currently collaborating with prestigious institutions like the Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC, Duke Children's Hospital, and the University of California San Francisco to propel Orotecan’s clinical trials.

The EO3001 program involves a mitochondrial targeting agent that attacks certain types of ovarian cancer and other solid tumors. Having faced a Phase III trial setback, the drug candidate underwent a revival through modern biological research. Understanding its cellular protein target and its effect on the ARID1A—a major tumor suppressor gene in many types of cancers—revitalized its potential as a drug that can benefit specific patients. Key pre-clinical research was completed through a successful collaboration with the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver. New clinical trials for the drug are set to commence in 2024, marking another milestone for the company.

In the EO1001 program, a new chemical entity that had never undergone human trials is also being advanced. Edison Oncology is currently partnering with Apollomics, Inc., a company funding the drug candidate’s clinical study, with a goal to eventually take over its development and marketing activities after completion of Edison Oncology’s ongoing initial clinical trial.

Drug Discovery through Expertise and Partnerships

Steering Edison Oncology toward success is its seasoned team of experts developing enhanced treatment for patients across oncology and other therapeutic fields. Each expert brings over 25 years of experience in their specific domains, spanning regulatory affairs, medical oncology and pharmacology.

The team works with leading academic laboratories like the Huntsman Laboratory at the British Columbia Cancer Agency to advance its drug candidates. The laboratory has expertise in ARID1A gene mutations, which forms a significant part of the company’s drug discovery program for EO3001. The lab validates drug candidate assumptions, tests related hypotheses, and develops supportive data before advancing to human clinical trials.

Bolstered by collaborative research, Edison Oncology recently presented clinical data demonstrating a drug’s potency against ovarian cancers that harbor the ARID1A mutation. This breakthrough enables it to select patients with a particular mutation to enroll in the clinical trial and develop the product specifically for them.

Our Goal Is To Make New, Precision Medicine Treatments Reach Oncologists Faster, Enabling Them To Treat Patients As Quickly As Possible

As the company takes these initial candidates with its partners’ support through market approval, it intends to bring additional programs as part of an ongoing pipeline.

A Promising Future of Therapeutic Success

Exciting developments lie ahead for Edison Oncology as it gears up to complete initial clinical trials with Orotecan in early 2024. It also seeks to advance into market registration directed trials before the end of the year and anticipates having data to support an application for FDA approval by the end of 2026.

For the EO3001 program, Edison Oncology plans to initiate new clinical trials in ARID1A mutant cancers in 2024. This will advance the drug candidate into registration-directed pivotal trials in 2025, with an eye toward seeking FDA approval in 2027.

A similar roadmap exists for its EO1001 program, with the intent to complete an ongoing initial clinical trial to establish the recommended dose for advanced trials. Once the initial study is completed, the drug will be handed over to the program-partner for further trials, which will generate milestone payments to Edison Oncology as the drug advances toward FDA approval. It will also generate royalties on future sales made by the partner.

With its robust project pipeline, Edison Oncology seeks to become a publicly listed company. It is dedicated to strengthening its chances of success in clinical trials through continued research programs and working with investors to build a pipeline of precision medicines.

“Our goal is to create new, precision medicine treatments and reach oncologists faster, enabling them to treat patients with new therapies as quickly as possible,” says Bacha.

Edison Oncology Holding's unceasing efforts to develop and bring new, precision cancer therapies to market are inspiring a future where cancer is not just managed, but conquered.