Emtora Biosciences is a San Antonio, TX company that has developed eRapa, a novel form of the FDA-approved active ingredient rapamycin. Rapamycin has previously shown promise in treating gastrointestinal diseases and in cancer prevention, but is limited by toxicity. eRapa is targeted to the colon and is delivered at lower doses, resulting in lower toxicity. eRapa is being evaluated to prevent colorectal cancer in patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP). FAP is a rare genetic disease that results in 100's to 1000's of benign polyps forming in the colon as early as the teen years. It is an orphan indication. In mice, eRapa decreased the occurrence of polyps based on dosage levels, ...

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Emtora Biosciences is a San Antonio, TX company that has developed eRapa, a novel form of the FDA-approved active ingredient rapamycin. Rapamycin has previously shown promise in treating gastrointestinal diseases and in cancer prevention, but is limited by toxicity. eRapa is targeted to the colon and is delivered at lower doses, resulting in lower toxicity. eRapa is being evaluated to prevent colorectal cancer in patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP). FAP is a rare genetic disease that results in 100's to 1000's of benign polyps forming in the colon as early as the teen years. It is an orphan indication. In mice, eRapa decreased the occurrence of polyps based on dosage levels, with the highest dose resulting in no polyps. FAP is ideal for a cancer prevention drug because 100% of FAP patients will develop cancer without prophylactic surgical bowel resection, and no approved therapy exists. In 2019, Emtora received a CPRIT Product Development (SEED) award for a Phase IIa study of eRapa in FAP, which is currently underway. Emtora is also developing a final dosage form of eRapa that will be more stable at room temperatures. Emtora seeks to expand the Phase IIa trial to evaluate comparability of the final formulation to the current formulation. At the conclusion of the Phase IIa trial, Emtora plans to initiate a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to study the efficacy of eRapa in preventing or delaying the onset of colorectal cancer in patients with FAP.

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