OUR FOCUS: INVASIVE FUNGAL INFECTIONS
Combating fungal disease—a global imperative
Fungal pathogens contribute to 6.5 million invasive infections and 3.8 million deaths globally every year (Denning DW, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 24, Issue 7e428-e438 July 2024). While most healthy people can naturally fight off these pathogens, fungi are opportunistic, most commonly impacting people with suppressed or compromised immune systems. These include people undergoing treatment for cancer, those receiving immunosuppressive drugs following an organ or stem cell transplant, and people with autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. Other risk factors for invasive fungal infections include liver failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and severe infection due to COVID-19 and influenza.
We are working to help fulfill a vast unmet need for physicians and patients facing the threat of invasive fungal infections.
The cost of fungal diseases including medical care, hospital stays and doctor visits
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The costs from deaths
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The costs from missed work
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Reference: Benedict et al, Med Mycol. 2025 June 05; 63(6)
The World Health Organization has highlighted the critical need for new antifungal therapies, especially for hard-to-treat fungi like Mucorales and Aspergillus species, some of which are resistant to all current antifungal drugs.
The past and current treatment landscape
Elion Therapeutics was founded on the understanding that mechanistic insights enable the targeted optimization of natural products. This approach has supported the development of our next-generation polyene EL219.
Polyene antifungals were introduced in the 1950s. The first one, amphotericin B, quickly became widely known for its efficacy but also for its systemic toxicities, especially severe renal toxicity. Later, lipid formulations were developed to mitigate against these toxicities, but these only partially hide the toxicities of the active drug, amphotericin B.
Since then, other classes of anitfungals have been introduced in the ongoing fight against invasive fungal infections. Challenges and unmet needs remain, underscoring the importance of continued antifungal drug development.
