Thetis Builds Scientific Advisory Board for Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Program

SOUTHPORT, CT--(Marketwired - Apr 20, 2016) - Thetis Pharmaceuticals LLC ("Thetis"), a development stage pharmaceutical company applying its expertise in amino lipid chemistry to develop innovative therapeutics, announced that Randall W. Burt, M.D., Patrick M. Lynch, M.D., J.D., and Rifat Pamukcu, M.D., FAIMBE have joined the company's Scientific Advisory Board to provide guidance on Thetis' development program in familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP).

Frank C. Sciavolino, Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Thetis, commented, "Randy, Pat and Rif have been at the forefront of FAP chemoprevention development for over two decades. Their affiliation with Thetis is a big vote of confidence that our FAP drug candidate has good prospects to meet this unmet medical need, particularly for adolescent FAP patients."

Dr. Burt commented, "Young FAP patients are in desperate need of a safe, effective therapy to help delay prophylactic colectomy. TP-252 has the right profile to achieve this clinically important outcome." 

About FAP

FAP is a rare genetic cancer predisposition syndrome characterized by the formation of numerous colorectal polyps in late childhood or adolescence. Unless the polyps are removed by surgical procedures, all FAP patients inevitably develop colorectal cancer, usually in middle age. There are no drugs approved by FDA for the treatment of FAP, and disease management currently involves screening, endoscopic surveillance and prophylactic surgery. Colectomy, which is usually performed between the ages of 16 and 20 years, significantly reduces the risk of colorectal cancer, but also imposes a heavy, long-term psycho-social burden on this young population.

About TP-252

TP-252, which has orphan drug designation from FDA, is targeted as adjunct therapy to the current standard of care to reduce polyp burden and safely delay the need for colectomy, thereby enabling patients to transition into adulthood when they are better situated to handle the emotional and physical trauma of surgery and its long-term effects. The favorable safety profile and unique mechanism-of-action of TP-252, supported by proof-of-concept data on its active agent in both animal models and FAP patients, validate TP-252 as an innovative and promising drug for this indication.

About our Scientific Advisors

Randall W. Burt, M.D., professor emeritus at the School of Medicine, University of Utah, is a national and international speaker and authority on familial colon cancer risk and inherited colon cancer syndromes. Over a 30 year career at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, he has served as senior director of prevention and outreach, senior director of inherited cancer syndromes clinic, senior executive director, and senior director of clinical affairs. 

Patrick M. Lynch, M.D, J.D., associate professor in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology& Nutrition at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, is a gastroenterologist and scientist with specific expertise in cancer risk for mismatch repair gene mutation carriers. Dr. Lynch has led or collaborated on multiple NIH- and industry-funded studies in hereditary colorectal cancers, including basic science, clinical, chemoprevention, and behavioral studies, and is a co-author or author on over 170 peer reviewed journal papers. 

Rifat Pamukcu, M.D., FAIMBE was previously involved in FAP drug development as a founder, director and chief scientific officer of Cell Pathways, Inc., where he directed the science, preclinical drug development, clinical research and regulatory programs for the development of exisulind for the treatment of FAP. Dr. Pamukcu, a gastroenterologist, is an inventor on over 150 issued or pending patents in the areas of drug discovery and development of agents for cancer prevention, cancer chemotherapeutics, inflammatory bowel disease and GI microbiome-related diseases.

About Thetis Pharmaceuticals

Thetis is a privately held biopharmaceutical company applying its HEALER™ technology to discover and develop innovative drugs. Thetis chemically transforms bioactive fatty acids into solid, stable, small molecule pharmaceuticals that target unmet medical needs in the gastro-intestinal and cardio-metabolic disease areas. The early-stage Thetis pipeline, which has composition-of-matter patent protection and potential first-in-class therapeutic credentials, includes TP-252 for treatment of familial adenomatous polyposis, TP-4311 for treatment of post-operative ileus, TP-452 as adjunct therapy to statins for management of LDL-cholesterol, and TP-113 for treatment of type 2 diabetes. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.thetispharma.com.