Sponsored Insight
UroGen’s purpose is to provide patients with better alternatives for the treatment of urologic cancers, specificially urothelial cancer, through the use of its novel proprietary RTGel™ technology. This unique platform facilitates extended dwell time of active pharmaceuticals in areas of the body that are challenging to treat for anatomic or physiologic reasons such as the lining of the kidney or the urinary bladder.
The company’s first approved treatment Jelmyto® (mitomycin) for pyelocalyceal solution has proven to be a game-changer in treating adults with upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC). Within a year of launch, a launch that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, Jelmyto has transformed the therapeutic landscape for patients with UTUC, most of whom would have undergone surgery and many of whom would have lost a kidney in the course of treating this disease. Now, patients have a non-surgical option for treating UTUC and physicans and patients are embracing this advance.
UroGen is working to leverage its technology to address unmet medical needs in a variety of other areas of significant unmet need. Its next program, in Phase 3 development, addresses the treatment of patients with chronically recurring non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), a disease historically treated using repetitive endoscopic surgery. 70-75% of the 80,000 diagnosed with bladder cancer are diagnosed with NMIBC, and of that, approximately 35,000 are low-grade NMIBC patients comprised of both low risk (approximately 15,000) and intermediate risk (approximately 20,000). These patients face a future of recurrence and additional surgeries. Repetitive surgical interventions are associated with specific risks that include bleeding, infection, bladder injury, and the need for prolonged catheter drainage.
In addition, UroGen’s pipeline includes the local delivery of combination immunotherapy for high grade non-invasive bladder cancer and is also collaborating with academic centers of excellence such as MD Anderson Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, and Stanford University to explore the use of its platform in the treatment of patients with a diverse set of cancers, including glioblastoma multiforme as well as head and neck cancer, biliary and colorectal cancer, uterine and cervical cancer, and peritoneal carciomatosis.
UroGen is changing the way patients are treated, and doing it for the better. It is remarkable to watch in real time, the transformation of a time-honored treatment paradigm. UroGen has become a change agent in urologic oncology with a bright future of fulfilling its promise: give patients better choices.
For more information, please visit www.UroGen.com.
Mark Schoenberg MD is Chief Medical Officer of UroGen Pharma. He has held prominent roles at several major universities, including the Bernard Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Urologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins University from 2005 to 2014.
Under the auspices of The American Cancer Society, Mark completed his fellowship in urologic oncology at The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He served as a resident in surgery and urology at the Hospital of The University of Pennsylvania and received his doctor of medicine from The University of Texas (Houston) and his undergraduate degree from Yale University.
Mark is a founding member of the scientific advisory board of The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network.