Elevar Therapeutics to Present Clinically Supported Poster at AACR 2023 Demonstrating Rivoceranib as a Potent, and Most Selective, TKI for VEGFR-2

FORT LEE, N.J., March 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Elevar Therapeutics, Inc., a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to elevating treatment experiences and outcomes for patients who have limited or inadequate therapeutic options, today announced it had a poster accepted for presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023, taking place April 14-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

The poster, “Comparative biochemical kinase activity analysis identifies rivoceranib as the most selective VEGFR-2 inhibitor compared with other TKIs with known activity against VEGFR-2,” will be presented Tuesday, April 18. Presentation details are as follows:

• Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics
• Session Title: Tyrosine Kinase and Phosphatase Inhibitors 1
• Session Date and Time: Tuesday, April 18, 2023, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
• Location: Section 20
• Poster Board Number: 11
• Abstract Presentation Number: 4014

Elevar is developing rivoceranib, an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), in combination with camrelizumab as a treatment option for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer; as a monotherapy treatment option for adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC); and as mono and combination therapies in other tumor types.

Elevar in September 2022 announced during the annual Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) that in its Phase 3 CARES 310 study, camrelizumab plus rivoceranib significantly prolonged overall survival and progression-free survival, and improved overall response rate versus sorafenib, a standard first-line treatment for unresectable HCC. The company intends to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) and Biologics License Application for the combination to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the first half of 2023.

In June 2022, Elevar announced at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting that in its Phase 2 clinical trial (Study RM-202) of rivoceranib monotherapy in patients with progressive recurrent or metastatic ACC, rivoceranib demonstrated clinical effectiveness, as indicated by substantially reduced tumor progression during the six months after rivoceranib treatment compared to the tumor progression during the six months prior to rivoceranib treatment. There are no currently approved therapies for ACC and the trial was the largest to date in ACC to show this level of effectiveness.

About Rivoceranib

Rivoceranib is the first small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved in gastric cancer in China (November 2014). Rivoceranib is a highly potent inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2), a primary pathway for tumor angiogenesis. VEGFR-2 inhibition is a clinically validated approach to limit tumor growth and disease progression. Rivoceranib is co-developed by Hengrui Pharma in China and by Elevar Therapeutics, Inc. globally (excluding China). It has been studied in more than 6,000 patients worldwide and was well tolerated in clinical trials with a comparable safety profile to other TKIs and VEGF inhibitors. Rivoceranib is currently being studied as a monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy in various solid tumor indications. Clinical studies are ongoing in multiple solid tumor types including gastric cancer (as a monotherapy and in combination with paclitaxel), HCC (in combination with camrelizumab), adenoid cystic carcinoma (as monotherapy) and colorectal cancer (in combination with Lonsurf^®). Orphan drug designations have been granted in gastric cancer (U.S., EU and South Korea), in adenoid cystic carcinoma (U.S.) and in HCC (U.S.). Elevar holds the global rights (excluding China) and has partnered for the development and marketing of rivoceranib with HLB-LS in South Korea. Rivoceranib, under the name apatinib, is currently approved in China for advanced gastric cancer and in second-line advanced HCC by the Chinese-territory license-holder, Hengrui Pharma, under the brand name Aitan^®.

About Elevar Therapeutics

Elevar Therapeutics, Inc. is a rapidly growing, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company built on the promise of elevating treatment experiences and outcomes for patients who have limited or inadequate therapeutic options. Elevar’s lead proprietary drug candidates include rivoceranib and paclitaxel micellar (Apealea®). Rivoceranib, under the name apatinib in China, is commercialized by Hengrui Pharma in China and was approved in China as a single agent for the treatment of gastric cancer (2014), a second-line treatment for advanced HCC (2020), and first-line treatment in combination with apatinib for uHCC (2023). It has been granted Orphan Drug Designation in the U.S., Europe and South Korea and has been clinically tested in more than 1,000 patients worldwide in numerous cancer indications. Apealea® is a non-Cremophor EL based formulation of paclitaxel that received marketing authorization by the European Commission in November 2018, making it Europe’s first non-Cremophor EL formulation of paclitaxel approved for use in ovarian cancer. Elevar is headquartered in New Jersey, with offices in Ireland and South Korea. Additional information is available at ElevarTherapeutics.com.

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