Erasca

Erasca is a biotechnology company that develops oncology therapeutics. The company’s name is derived from its aim to “erase cancer” and it focuses on developing therapies that go after RAS - the most frequently mutated oncogene in human cancer, and the MAPK pathway, which is one of the most frequently altered signaling pathways in cancer. It operates an AI drug discovery platform, Oncology Pattern Recognition Algorithm (OPRA), which is capable of analyzing large-scale data sets to find therapeutics for cancer.

As of March 2024, the company’s pipeline of in-house precision therapies for undisclosed cancer targets included six modality-agnostic programs targeting the RAS/MAPK pathway. It had three lead programs: 1) Naporafenib (ERAS-254), an oral pan-RAF inhibitor; 2) ERAS-007, an oral ERK1/2 inhibitor; and 3) ERAS-801, a brain-penetrant EGFR inhibitor.

The company also seeks to enter into a partnership with other pharma companies to expand its pipeline. Erasca claims it does not limit its experiments to one form of drug or a single approach to treating cancer. 

Key customers and partnerships

Erasca entered key clinical trial collaborations with 1) Eli Lilly, for Lilly’s anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab ( July 2022 ) and 2) Pfizer for the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib ( October 2022 ).

Funding and financials

Erasca went public on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ERAS” in July 2021, raising gross proceeds of up to USD 345 million. In December 2022 , the company raised USD 100 million in an underwritten equity offering of 15.4 million common shares at a rate of USD 6.50 per share. The funds were expected to be used to support the R&D efforts and for working capital and general purposes.