ESSA Pharma appoints Dr Ari Brettman to its Board of Directors

– CANADA, Vancouver / USA, TX –  ESSA Pharma Inc. (TSX: EPI | NASDAQ: EPIX), a pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for the treatment of prostate cancer, today announced that Ari Brettman has been appointed to the board of the directors of the Company pursuant to a nomination right granted to Clarus Lifesciences III, L.P., now managed by Blackstone Life Sciences.

The Company also announces that Otello Stampacchia, who has represented Omega Funds, has resigned from the Board as he focuses on new investments.

David R. Parkinson, President and CEO said, “We are extremely appreciative of Otello’s support as a member of the Board of Directors.  Ari’s perspectives will be valuable as we execute on the path towards a successful IND filing of EPI-7386.”

About Dr Ari Brettman

Dr. Brettman is currently a Principal in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December of 2018. Dr. Brettman joined Clarus in September 2014. Dr. Brettman is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Praxis Precision Medicines and Anthos Therapeutics as well as an Observer on the Board of Directors of Talaris Therapeutics.

Dr. Brettman completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and was also a National Institutes of Health-sponsored post-doctoral fellow at the MGH Center for Systems Biology. He received his M.D. from Duke University and his A.B. in History and Science from Harvard College. While a medical student, he was a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation Fellow at Stanford University, where he studied angiogenesis.

About ESSA Pharma Inc.

ESSA is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel and proprietary therapies for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer in patients whose disease is progressing despite treatment with current therapies. ESSA’s proprietary “aniten” compounds bind to the N-terminal domain of the androgen receptor, inhibiting AR driven transcription and the AR signaling pathway in a unique manner that bypasses the drug resistance mechanisms associated with current anti-androgens. The Company is currently progressing IND-enabling studies and expects to file an IND with the FDA for EPI-7386 in the first calendar quarter of 2020.

For more information: http://www.essapharma.com

About Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second-most commonly diagnosed cancer among men and the fifth most common cause of male cancer death worldwide. Adenocarcinoma of the prostate is dependent on androgen for tumor progression and depleting or blocking androgen action has been a mainstay of hormonal treatment for over six decades. Although tumors are often initially sensitive to medical or surgical therapies that decrease levels of testosterone, disease progression despite castrate levels of testosterone generally represents a transition to the lethal variant of the disease, metastatic CPRC, and most patients ultimately succumb to the illness. The treatment of mCRPC patients has evolved rapidly over the past five years. Despite these advances, additional treatment options are needed to improve clinical outcomes in patients, particularly those who fail existing treatments including abiraterone or enzalutamide, or those who have contraindications to receive those drugs. Over time, patients with mCRPC generally experience continued disease progression, worsening pain, leading to substantial morbidity and limited survival rates. In both in vitro and in vivo animal studies, ESSA’s novel approach to blocking the androgen pathway has been shown to be effective in blocking tumor growth when current therapies are no longer effective.

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