Kura Gets US Patent for Clinical-Stage Drug

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) announced it has received a patent for KO-947, their drug candidate designed to treat extracellular-signal-regulated kinases.
As quoted in the press release:

The new patent, U.S. 9,624,228, entitled “Inhibitors of ERK and Methods of Use,” covers KO-947 and structurally-related compounds as well as methods of using the compounds for the treatment of diseases including cancer.

“We believe KO-947 holds much promise as a potential therapeutic, and we were pleased to have advanced it into Phase 1 clinical testing earlier this month,” said Troy Wilson, Ph.D., J.D., President and CEO of Kura Oncology. “Issuance of this composition of matter patent is an important development for Kura and the program.”
About KO-947
KO-947 is a potent and selective small molecule ERK1/2 inhibitor. KO-947 exhibits potent anti-proliferative activity across a broad panel of tumor cell lines with mutations in BRAF, NRAS or KRAS and demonstrates prolonged pathway inhibition, both in vitro and in vivo. Durable tumor regression has been observed with KO-947 in preclinical cell line and patient derived xenograft models, including KRAS- and BRAF-mutant adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas lacking BRAF/RAS mutations.
About Kura Oncology
Kura Oncology is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to realizing the promise of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer. The company’s pipeline consists of small molecule drug candidates that target cancer signaling pathways where there is a strong scientific and clinical rationale to improve outcomes by identifying those patients most likely to benefit from treatment. Kura Oncology’s lead drug candidate is tipifarnib, a farnesyl transferase inhibitor, which is currently being studied in multiple Phase 2 clinical trials. Kura’s pipeline also includes KO-947, an ERK inhibitor, currently in a Phase 1 trial, and KO-539, an inhibitor of the menin-MLL protein-protein interaction, currently in preclinical testing. For additional information about Kura Oncology, please visit the company’s website at www.kuraoncology.com.

Click here to read the full press release.

Source: globenewswire.com