Ellipses Pharma

The UK-headquartered firm was founded in 2018 with the objective of developing innovative cancer medicines and making them available to patients at unprecedented speed.

According to Ellipses, traditional drug development models have failed to keep pace with cancer, prompting the company to adopt its bold and ambitious approach.

A unique approach to drug development

Having uninterrupted development capital for each asset allows Ellipses to speed up development and own more of the value chain. Its fundraising is for the company as a whole, not a single trial, and its investment strategy is objectively focused on its portfolio, not on an individual asset.

Ellipses' scientific affairs group is the largest oncology-focused network of global key opinion leaders, providing high-quality, independent and unbiased expertise. These leaders come from either the forefront of academic research or are practising clinicians, who often have a background in advising pharmaceutical drug development.

Ellipses uses its Scientific Affairs Group to validate the science, its clinical application—from a patient perspective—and provide oncology-focused consensus. Insights from the group enable the company to design more effective and efficient clinical trials, utilizing novel trial techniques, targeting highly specialized patient populations.

This stratification of patients into more focused clinical trials delivers enhanced efficacy, cost efficiency and a higher probability of success; thus de-risking the asset/drug for future pharmaceutical partners.

Ellipses' active clinical development engine drives continued sponsorship to ensure focus on the delivery and execution of the clinical trial. The company embed its specialist in-house drug development team into its clinical trial interface to facilitate interaction, drive patient recruitment and help achieve time/cost efficiencies, protecting against value erosion. This approach enhances both the value of IP and value to the patient.

The firm has a rapidly extensible platform with a strong pipeline of clinical opportunities, and is globally scalable. Together with its portfolio approach to investment, Ellipses is confident that this can enable it to accelerate drug development at unprecedented speed and scale.

World-renowned leadership

Ellipses' team has a proven track record in search and evaluation, acquisition of new assets and out-license of developed medicines.

Professor Sir Chris Evans

Chairman & Founder

Sir Chris is a successful scientist and businessman with an extremely strong track record of creating innovative products and founding, launching and growing biomedical and life sciences companies. He has been involved in the inception and development of more than 50 companies, 20 of which are now listed on stock exchanges across the globe. Driven by creativity and innovation, he was the pioneer of the first wave of biotech development in the UK and Europe. Subsequently, he has founded numerous companies in the life sciences space, several of which have gone on to attain billion-dollar unicorn status including Biovex, Chiroscience and Vectura. He has also built several bioscience investment funds including the first such fund in Wales, and has established two significant charitable endeavors focused on accelerating research and providing accessible information for patients.

Dr Rajan Jethwa

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Rajan founded Ellipses Pharma in 2018 with Professor Sir Chris Evans, to focus on the development of innovative cancer medicines and treatments, with the mission of making them available to patients at unprecedented speed. At Ellipses, he has developed a differentiated model in drug development that combines unbiased vetting of potential drug candidates to de-risk initial drug selection and trial design with an uninterrupted flow of capital to minimize the time it takes to advance drugs through the clinical trial process and reach patients. Having held positions across the industry, as a surgeon, investor and chief executive, Rajan has spent nearly 20 years building and leading successful life science businesses at the frontier of the sector. Rajan graduated from Cambridge University with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Medical Sciences and is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

David Cook

Chief Financial Officer

David has been Chief Financial Officer at Ellipses since its early stages and is also a Director on its Board. As a central member of the executive team, he drives the company’s growth and helps to set its strategy, as well as taking on key responsibilities in funding and business development. David has extensive experience as a CFO within the life sciences industry. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he qualified as a chartered accountant, before holding CFO and Group Financial Controller positions at several life sciences companies. A personal highlight was his steering of Biotie Therapies through its listing on NASDAQ, as its CFO. More recently, he has served on the board of AIM-listed Alliance Pharmaceuticals, including currently as its Non-Executive Chairman. David holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Professor Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau

Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer

Tobi is responsible for the clinical development of the drugs in Ellipses’ pipeline. He leads clinical strategy, coordinates the drug development teams to deliver the clinical programs and is an ambassador for its Scientific Affairs Group. Over the course of his career, Tobi has worked on more than 300 early-stage clinical trials, with several of these trials providing the compounds that have gone on to become the new standard of care.

A Medical Oncologist by training, Tobi is a practicing clinician, having begun his early career as an oncologist in Bremen, Germany and then at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, before becoming a team leader in Clinical Drug Development at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He has spent more than a decade as a Professor at University College London, and most recently was the Executive Medical Director at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He holds a PhD from the Medical School of Hanover.

Martin Doorbar

Chief Development Officer, Non-Clinical

Martin is an expert in drug development and manufacturing and has played a pivotal role in bringing 13 drugs to market to date. His broad experience across the pharmaceutical industry started within big pharma at Aventis, includes eight years at Shire Pharmaceuticals, where he was a Senior Director of Product Development, and more recently as Global Head of Product Development and Manufacturing at HUYA Bioscience. At Ellipses, Martin leads the non-clinical and preclinical development arms of the organization, working in conjunction with the clinical development arm to progress Ellipses’ exciting portfolio of oncology assets. Martin graduated with a degree in Applied and Analytical Chemistry from Staffordshire University and has a post-graduate certificate in management studies.

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