KC startup’s bone cancer treatment for dogs earns ‘milestone’ USDA validation

A decade of hard work by a veteran entrepreneur and her Olathe-based team has cleared a significant hurdle on the pathway to licensure as its first-in-class adoptive cell therapy for dog cancer gains a critical nod of approval from federal regulators.

ELIAS Animal Health, a leading companion animal cancer therapeutics company, recently announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Center for Veterinary Biologics determined its clinical trial data demonstrated a reasonable expectation of efficacy for the treatment of bone cancer in dogs. 

“We are thrilled to achieve this important milestone with our first cancer product,” said Tammie Wahaus, CEO of ELIAS Animal Health. “I want to thank the pet owners who enrolled their dogs in the ECI-OSA-04 study, the veterinarians for their perseverance to complete the study during a pandemic, and my team for their tireless dedication. We are excited to bring this advanced personalized medicine to the veterinary market and provide a new tool in the fight against cancer.”

Founded in 2014, ELIAS Animal Health is a medical biotechnology company advancing novel targeted T cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of canine cancers. Cancer is the leading cause of death in dogs over the age of two and represents a significant unmet medical need in veterinary medicine.

Validation by the USDA is an important step in advancing the solution, said Wahaus, a Pipeline Entrepreneur from the 2019 fellowship. 

The company plans to raise a $10 million Series A round to support manufacturing expansion, commercial launch of its ELIAS Cancer Immunotherapy (ECI) product, and continued development of its product pipeline: including a novel oncolytic immunotherapy, a pilot study combining ECI with a conditionally approved checkpoint inhibitor, and a pilot study evaluating its adoptive cell therapy in large breed dogs using a sophisticated surgical technique to avoid amputation.

ELIAS Animal Health’s two-arm field safety and efficacy study was one of the largest clinical trials conducted in canine cancer and the first of its kind to evaluate a state-of-the-art adoptive cell therapy as a treatment for cancer in dogs, the company said. ECI works by conditioning the immune system to recognize a patient’s unique cancer, and then delivering an army of activated killer T cells to specifically target and attack those cancer cells.

Prior to commercial launch, which is expected later in 2024, ECI will continue to be available as an experimental biologic for veterinary use under ELIAS’s existing 9 CFR 103.3 authorization as the company finalizes the remaining regulatory actions to secure a first-in-class Autologous Prescription Product license.

Click here to read more about the journey of ELIAS Animal Health, one of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2020.