Gary Mathias, Co-Founder and CEO of Thetis Pharmaceuticals, recently shared the following message.
Happy New Year from the Thetis team!
I am glad to report that 2019 was a year of enormous progress and that we begin 2020 with strong momentum.
Our TP-317 program for treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is advancing on a number of fronts that are critical to initiating clinical trials, which would be a major value inflection point for Thetis. With grant funding from the nation’s leading IBD research institutions (Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and National Institutes of Health), we are developing TP-317 as a safe, oral chronic drug therapy with a unique, non-immunosuppressive approach to treating both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, which together afflict 1.3% of the US population or 3 million people.
In 2019, we launched a new program (TP-352) in NASH, a severe form of fatty liver disease that afflicts over 3-4% of the US population or about 10 million people. NASH is now the 2nd largest single cause of liver transplantation after hepatitis C and the market for NASH therapies is expected to reach $25 billion by 2026. With funding from a recent $2.3 million SBIR grant from NIH, we are developing TP-352 as a safe, oral chronic drug therapy for NASH in both adult and adolescent patients.
The addition of the TP-352 program gives Thetis a strong pipeline of two gastrointestinal drugs with blockbuster potential that are poised to initiate clinical development in the next 15-18 months.
We look forward to reporting our progress as we advance these exciting new therapies to help patients suffering from these serious chronic diseases.
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2020.