Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement

On March 24, 2020, Kura Oncology, Inc. (the "Company") entered into an Office Lease (the "Lease") with East Office Operating Limited Partnership ("Landlord") for the lease of approximately 16,541 square feet of rentable area of the building located at Two Sea Port Lane, Boston, Massachusetts (the "Premises"). The commencement date of the Lease is April 1, 2020. The Company expects to use the Premises for general office use. The initial term of the Lease (the "Initial Term") is four years and three months and the Company has one option to extend the Lease for a period of five additional years. The minimum rent payable by the Company under the Lease will be approximately $105,500 per month for the first year of the Lease, which amount will increase by 2.0% per year over the Initial Term. The Company will also be responsible for the payment of additional rent to cover the Company’s share of the annual operating expenses of the building, the annual tax expenses of the building, the annual utilities costs for the building and parking. In the event of a default of certain of the Company’s obligations under the Lease, Landlord would have the right to terminate the Lease and recover certain unpaid rent and expenses.

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The foregoing description of the Lease does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by reference to, the full text of the Lease. The Company intends to file a copy of the Lease with the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.

Kineta Invited to Participate at the Upcoming 2020 Solebury Trout Virtual Investor Conference

On March 24, 2020 Kineta, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel immunotherapies in oncology, neuroscience and biodefense repored that Shawn Iadonato, Kineta Chief Executive Officer, will present an overview of the company at the upcoming Solebury Trout Virtual Investor Conference (Press release, Kineta, MAR 24, 2020, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kineta-invited-to-participate-solebury-trout [SID1234555825]). The 25 minute presentation includes an interactive Q&A with participants prompted to submit questions electronically. Details for the virtual presentation are as follows:

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Date: Thursday, March 26th, 2020

Time: 2:30 PM Eastern Time / 11:30 AM Pacific Time

NORGINE B.V. ACQUIRES AZANTA A/S

On March 24, 2020 Norgine B.V. ("Norgine") reported the acquisition of Azanta A/S, a specialty biopharmaceutical company operating within women’s healthcare, addiction medicine and oncology (Press release, azanta, MAR 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234555807]). Azanta becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norgine.

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As a result of the transaction, Norgine acquires Azanta’s portfolio of products, including Angusta for labour induction and Nimorazole, a hypoxic radiosensitizer for the treatment of head and neck cancer patients undergoing primary radiotherapy. Angusta was approved in Q1 2017 in the Nordics, and in Q4 2017 in France and 10 CEE countries. Regulatory approval for the rest of Europe is expected to be filed in H1 2020. Nimorazole has EMA orphan drug status and is ready for Phase III stage development.

Azanta A/S is headquartered in Denmark with pharmaceutical sales subsidiaries in the other Nordic countries and in France. Norgine has a direct presence in 12 European countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand and has a strong track-record of successfully bringing products to market across Europe. Norgine also has a strong global network of partnerships in non-Norgine markets. Norgine’s European experience, fully integrated infrastructure and exceptional partnership approach enables it to quickly apply creative solutions to bring life-changing medicines to patients that they may not otherwise be able to access.

This acquisition further strengthens Norgine’s position as a leading European specialist pharmaceutical company.

Peter Stein, CEO of Norgine, says: "Our commitment to transforming people’s lives drives everything we do and we are very proud to welcome the Azanta team and their portfolio of specialty products to Norgine. This transaction will enable us to strengthen our business in Europe and ultimately to help more patients."

IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter 2019 Financial Results and Provides Business Update

On March 24, 2020 IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:IDYA), an oncology-focused precision medicine company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using reported that financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019 (Press release, Ideaya Biosciences, MAR 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234555805]).

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"IDEAYA is building a leading synthetic lethality biopharmaceutical company, advancing a broad pipeline of synthetic lethality programs, including our MAT2A program for which we have selected a lead compound MAT2A inhibitor. We also continue to advance development of IDE196 in our Phase 1/2 tissue-agnostic basket trial in patients with solid tumors harboring GNAQ or GNA11 (GNAQ/11) mutations such as metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM), cutaneous melanoma and colorectal cancer, including evaluation of IDE196 in combination with binimetinib under a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Pfizer," said Yujiro S. Hata, Chief Executive Officer and President at IDEAYA Biosciences.

We continue to progress our MAT2A synthetic lethality program for tumors with MTAP deletion. We have selected a lead compound which we believe has favorably differentiated activity, physical properties and tolerability, and have scaled this lead compound for non-GLP toxicology studies in two species to support selection of a development candidate in the second quarter of 2020.

We also continue to progress our broad pipeline of synthetic lethality programs, including Pol theta for tumors with BRCA or other homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) mutations, Werner (WRN) for tumors with high microsatellite instability (MSI), and PARG for tumors with BRCA2 mutations, impaired base excision repair, or replication stress signature. We are applying our fully integrated research and translational capabilities to these programs. We have solved the crystal structures for each of these research programs, and we are conducting preclinical in vivo efficacy studies in three of our synthetic lethality programs.

Key highlights for IDEAYA’s research and development programs include:

Clinical Program IDE196

IDE196

Advanced IDEAYA’s Phase 1/2 tissue-type agnostic basket trial, initiated in June 2019, to evaluate IDE196 in solid tumors harboring activating GNAQ/11 mutations, entitled "A phase 1/2 study of IDE196 in patients with solid tumors harboring GNAQ/11 mutations or PRKC fusions" (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03947385). As of March 15, 2020:
Enrolled 53 patients in IDE196 monotherapy arm of Phase 1/2 clinical trial
Ongoing evaluation of IDE196 monotherapy arm in MUM, with aggregate enrollment of 49 patients in the Phase 1 dose escalation and tablet formulation studies
Initiated the Phase 2 expansion for IDE196 as a monotherapy in solid tumors other than MUM having GNAQ or GNA11 hotspot mutations, with aggregate Phase 1/2 enrollment of 4 cutaneous melanoma patients
Selected 400mg BID (with one week 200 mg BID run-in) as Phase 2 monotherapy dose; observed higher average steady state exposure of free IDE196 (AUCfree, increase of approximately 44%) and higher trough concentration of IDE196 (Cmin, increase of approximately 40%) at 400 mg BID relative to 300 mg BID dose
Evaluating tablet formulation of IDE196 in MUM patients in a Phase 1 sub-study, with the pharmacokinetic profile of the tablet formulation comparable to the powder-in-capsule form of IDE196
Completed in-life portion of the ongoing 13-week GLP-compliant toxicology studies in two species, initiated in November 2019
Interim data from the monotherapy arm of the Phase 1/2 basket trial targeted for second half 2020
Entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Pfizer; targeting to initiate combination arm of Phase 1/2 clinical trial in mid-2020 to evaluate safety and efficacy of IDE196 in combination with binimetinib, a MEK inhibitor, in patients having tumors with activating GNAQ or GNA11 hotspot mutations, including in metastatic uveal melanoma and other solid tumors
Design and initiation of potential registration-enabling study in MUM will be evaluated based on results of ongoing IDE196 monotherapy arm and planned IDE196 / binimetinib combination arm of the Phase 1/2 clinical trial
Preclinical Synthetic Lethality Programs

MAT2A

Observed single agent in vivo efficacy of our MAT2A inhibitors, including tumor growth inhibition or tumor regression in multiple MTAP -/- endogenous models
Selected a lead compound which we believe has favorably differentiated in vivo activity, physical properties and tolerability profile relative to published Agios compounds
Scaled the MAT2A lead compound for non-GLP toxicology studies in two species to support selection of a development candidate in the second quarter of 2020
Expect to file an IND for MAT2A inhibitor development candidate in fourth quarter of 2020
Pol Theta

Observed monotherapy activity, showing cell viability activity and in vivo tumor growth inhibition in a DLD1 BRCA2 -/- engineered model
Observed combination activity with a PARPi, Olaparib, as well as synergistic cell viability activity and synergistic in vivo tumor growth inhibition in the DLD1 BRCA2 -/- engineered model, with a weak drug-drug interaction signal
Targeting designation of Pol-theta inhibitor development candidate in second half of 2020
Werner (WRN)

Observed dose-dependent cellular viability effect in multiple endogenous MSI high cell lines, with an expected lack of activity in microsatellite stable, or MSS, cell lines
Observed dose-dependent cellular pharmacodynamic (PD) response in multiple endogenous MSI high cell lines
Solved crystal structure of WRN helicase domain
Targeting to demonstrate in vivo proof of concept in relevant animal models in 2020
PARG

Observed dose-dependent cellular pharmacodynamic response and cellular viability effect in a HCC1806 XRCC1 -/- cell line
Expanded research collaboration with Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the University of Manchester, UK, to evaluate IDEAYA’s potent selective PARG inhibitors in vitro and in vivo in multiple ovarian cancer cell lines and xenograft models, respectively, and to evaluate replication stress signature as a potential patient selection biomarker
"We continue to advance our programs, expand our capabilities and enhance our team. We believe that the IDE196 clinical program and our preclinical pipeline of synthetic lethality programs are maturing, moving forward toward our goal of improving lives through transformative precision medicines," said Yujiro S. Hata, Chief Executive Officer and President at IDEAYA Biosciences.

Corporate Updates

IDEAYA anticipates that existing cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term marketable securities of $100.5 million (as of December 31, 2019) will be sufficient to fund planned operations into the end of 2021 to early 2022.

Our updated corporate presentation is available on our website, in the Presentations section of our Investor Relations page. See: View Source

Financial Results

As of December 31, 2019, IDEAYA had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term marketable securities totaling $100.5 million. This compared to cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities of $90.0 million at December 31, 2018. The increase was primarily due to the receipt of $50.2 million in net proceeds from IDEAYA’s initial public offering, which was completed in May 2019, offset by cash used in operations.

Research and development expenses for the three months ended December 31, 2019 totaled $8.5 million compared to $7.6 million for the same period in 2018. The increase was primarily due to costs in connection with IDEAYA’s Phase 1/2 clinical trial to evaluate IDE196 in solid tumors, and costs for personnel and consulting in support of our research programs during the three months ended December 31, 2019.

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended December 31, 2019 totaled $2.8 million compared to $1.6 million for the same period in 2018. The increase was primarily due to an increase in costs for personnel and directors’ and officers’ liability insurance premiums in connection with becoming a publicly traded company.

Research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 totaled $34.3 million compared to $31.7 million for 2018. The increase was primarily due to an increase in costs in connection with IDEAYA’s Phase 1/2 clinical trial to evaluate IDE196 in solid tumors, and costs for personnel and consulting in support of our research programs during the year ended December 31, 2019, offset by a decrease in license fees for our IDE196 license agreement with Novartis during the year ended December 31, 2018.

General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 totaled $10.0 million compared to $4.7 million for 2018. The increase was primarily due to an increase in costs for personnel, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance premiums, and professional fees in connection with becoming a publicly traded company.

The net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2019 was $10.8 million compared to $8.6 million for the same period in 2018. Total stock compensation expense for the three months ended December 31, 2019 was $0.7 million compared to $0.3 million for the same period in 2018.

The net loss for the year ended December 31, 2019 was $42.0 million compared to $34.3 million for the same period in 2018. Total stock compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2019 was $2.2 million compared to $1.0 million for the same period in 2018.

OncoQuest Announces Publication of Two Reports Related to Oregovomab Phase 2 Clinical Trial, the Company’s Lead Investigational Drug in Frontline Ovarian Cancer

On March 24, 2020 OncoQuest Inc. ("OncoQuest" or the "Company"), a privately held, cancer immunotherapy company reported the publication of two reports relating to the recently completed Phase 2 trial conducted in the US and Italy utilizing oregovomab, the Company’s lead investigational drug in frontline ovarian cancer (Press release, OncoQuest, MAR 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234555804]).

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The first report which appears in the journal Gynecologic Oncology is titled Front-line chemo-immunotherapy with carboplatin-paclitaxel using oregovomab indirect immunization in advanced ovarian cancer: A randomized phase II study, reported the clinical results in the completed 97-patient randomized controlled multi-site study in which 47 patients were randomized to receive chemoimmunotherapy with standard carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy combined with oregovomab or standard chemotherapy (standard carboplatin and paclitaxel).

The study was conducted with a median of 42 months follow up and shows highly statistically significant outcomes for both progression-free and overall survival favoring the chemoimmunotherapy arm. The risk of progression and of death was reduced by more than 50% in the chemoimmunotherapy arm. Safety data shows that the addition of orgeovomab did not add incremental toxicity to chemotherapy.

The second report published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy is titled Translational immune correlates of indirect antibody immunization in a randomized phase II study using scheduled combination therapy with carboplatin/paclitaxel plus oregovomab in ovarian cancer. The report examined translational laboratory outcomes from a subset of the Italian cohort of patients in the above described study from the laboratory of Professor Scambia at Catholic University Hospital in Rome. The report confirms that chemoimmunotherapy increased the presence of CA125-specific CD8+T lymphocytes measured in the peripheral blood compared to chemotherapy, which correlated with favorable clinical outcomes. Myeloid derived immune suppression was measured by MDSC4 (flow cytometry) and NMLR (neutrophil-monocyte to lymphocyte ratio) and it was found that lower levels of these parameters at baseline predicted more favorable outcomes in the patients receiving chemoimmunotherapy compared to chemotherapy. These findings offer promise of development of a readily accessible prognostic indicator for guiding the therapeutic strategy for newly diagnosed patients who would be candidates for chemoimmunotherapy with orgeovomab.

"The publication of our Phase II clinical results in peer reviewed journals validates the quality of the clinical data generated from our clinical study", said Dr. Madiyalakan, CEO of OncoQuest "We have discussed our Phase 2 results in an End of Phase 2 meeting with the FDA and based on those discussions are proceeding with our planned Phase 3 registration trial."

The Company is currently planning to launch a Phase 3 trial in Q2 2020. The planned Phase 3 study is expected to enroll over 600 patients with newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer globally. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial design is expected to incorporate analyses of the effect of the addition of oregovomab in both the adjuvant and neo-adjuvant settings. In both the adjuvant and neo-adjuvant arms, the primary endpoint will be to evaluate progression-free survival of patients treated with oregovomab plus a standard-of-care chemotherapy combination, carboplatin and paclitaxel, compared to the chemotherapy alone.