SAN FRANCISCO and SAN DIEGO, June 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kinnate Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: KNTE) (“Kinnate”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule kinase inhibitors for difficult-to-treat, genomically defined cancers, announced results from preclinical studies evaluating its lead RAF inhibitor candidate, KIN-2787. These data will be presented today during a virtual poster session at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
KIN-2787, Kinnate’s most advanced product candidate, is an orally available small molecule pan-RAF inhibitor being developed for the treatment of patients with lung cancer, melanoma, and other solid tumors. Unlike currently available treatments that target only Class I BRAF kinase mutations, Kinnate has designed KIN-2787 to target Class II and Class III BRAF mutations, where it would be a first-line targeted therapy, in addition to covering Class I BRAF mutations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Kinnate’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for KIN-2787 and the company anticipates initiating a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of the candidate in patients with mutant BRAF-driven solid tumors in mid-2021.
“These data are important, early signals of the potential anti-tumor activity of KIN-2787 and support our IND application recently cleared by the FDA,” said Eric Murphy, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, and co-founder of Kinnate. “Our approach targets dimer signaling in specific patient populations with BRAF mutations while minimizing MAPK paradoxical activation. KIN-2787 shows pronounced in vitro and in vivo activity against human cancers driven by Class I, II and III BRAF alterations, and these results support our phase 1 clinical trial initiating shortly in these defined molecular subtypes.”
The poster presentation, delivered by Aleksandra Franovic, PhD, Senior Director of Translational Medicine at Kinnate, highlights data which show that treatment with KIN-2787 resulted in exposure-dependent inhibition of MEK-ERK phosphorylation and was accompanied by the successful suppression of MAPK transcriptional targets at the RNA and protein level. High selectivity was displayed for all three RAF family kinases in screens evaluating its activity against more than 600 kinases. Due to potent dimer inhibition, KIN-2787 did not demonstrate significant paradoxical activation in these studies. Twice daily (BID) dosing was well-tolerated and led to prolonged target coverage and a trend towards more frequent and deeper tumor responses in vivo.
Kinnate’s poster presentation (Abstract #3116), titled “The next-generation pan-RAF inhibitor, KIN-2787, is active in class II and class III BRAF Mutant models,” will be available for on-demand viewing at 09:00AM ET today and can be accessed via: https://conferences.asco.org/am/attend.
About Kinnate
Kinnate is focused on the discovery and development of small molecule kinase inhibitors for difficult-to-treat, genomically defined cancers. Kinnate’s mission is to expand the reach of targeted therapeutics by developing products for underserved populations. Kinnate utilizes its deep expertise in structure-based drug discovery, translational research, and patient-driven precision medicine, which it refers to as the Kinnate Discovery Engine, to develop targeted therapies. Based in San Francisco and San Diego, California, the Kinnate team is composed of drug discovery experts supported by a distinguished group of scientific advisors. For more information, please visit www.kinnate.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the expected timing for our initiation of our clinical trials and the potential benefits and treatment indications of our product candidates. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “will,” “goal,” “potential” and similar expressions are also intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends. Such expectations and projections may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including risks related to operating as a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history; our ability to raise additional capital to finance our operations; our ability to discover, advance through the preclinical and clinical development of, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidates; the novel approach we are taking to discover and develop drugs; our ability to timely file and obtain approval of investigational new drug applications for our planned clinical trials; the potential for any clinical trial results to differ from our preclinical trial results; negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, including planned clinical trials and ongoing and planned preclinical trials; competition in our industry; regulatory developments in the United States and other countries; our ability to attract, hire and retain highly skilled executive officers and employees; difficulties in managing our growth; our ability to protect our intellectual property; reliance on third parties to conduct our preclinical studies and any future clinical trials, and to manufacture our product candidates; general economic and market conditions; and other risks.
These and other risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors are further described under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2021 that we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), as well as in our subsequent filings we make with the SEC. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements. Investors should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason in the future.
Contacts:
Investors:
Patti Bank
Westwicke, an ICR Company
415-513-1284
investors@kinnate.com
Media:
Colin Sanford
203-918-4347
colin@bioscribe.com