The case for Epistat

Keratinocyte skin cancers - squamous cell and basal cell carcinoma - are the most common malignancies in humans. For people at high risk they are relentless: transplant recipients, people on immunosuppression, those with genetic conditions such as Gorlin syndrome, and the heavily sun-damaged develop tumour after tumour, each one needing surgery.

It is painful, disfiguring and costly, and today there is no approved medicine that can protect these patients from developing new cancers.

An estimated 10-20 million people worldwide are at high risk. The very-highest-risk group - transplant and other immunosuppressed patients, who can carry a 65-100x increased risk - already number a few million and are under regular dermatology review.

A medicine that halves their risk represents a penetration-adjusted global peak-sales opportunity of several billion pounds a year.

See how we size the market →

At the heart of Epistat is a proprietary 3D human-tissue platform that models how skin cancers actually begin, at the earliest steps of the disease. It is disease-validated - a known medicine blocks the disease process in the model - and it is built for high-throughput screening.

That means it can generate many preventive drug candidates across different biology, rather than betting the company on a single molecule.

We are building a pipeline on two tracks: repurposed medicines, whose existing safety record offers a fast, de-risked route to patients, and novel compounds designed for stronger, longer-lasting protection. Candidates are being developed for both topical and systemic use.

Epistat is led by Dr Magnus Lynch, a consultant dermatologist and Mohs surgeon who is an expert in the treatment of complex keratinocyte-derived skin cancers as well as a Reader in Cutaneous Oncology and Principal Investigator at King's College London. Dr Lynch has direct access to the patients that need these new treatments as well as patient-derived tumour samples to support their development.

The science is validated, the market has no incumbent, and growing interest in prevention among dermatologists signals an enormous market opportunity.

Our near-term priorities are to secure a broad intellectual property portfolio and establish partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. We are raising a seed round to build a broad, protected portfolio of preventive candidates on the platform, ahead of animal studies and a first-in-human prevention trial.

A detailed plan, data and the current round will be shared with potential investors on request.

A founding team that combines expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of complex keratinocyte carcinomas, laboratory science and the assay at the core of the platform, supported by King's College London and the King's Spinout Accelerator.

Meet the team →