Kymera's First R&D Day Highlights Clinical Success, Reveals 5-Year Plan

 n addition to showcasing data from their in-progress Phase I clinical trial, Kymera Therapeutics also announced their newest development program and outlined the company’s 5-year plan in their very first R&D Day.

The primary advantage offered by targeted protein degradation (TPD)-based therapeutics is the opportunity to exercise a novel mode of interference while still targeting cell products and immune pathways already pre-established as integral to autoimmune diseases or cancer. Uniquely, TPD-based therapies can target and break down proteins that are not receptive to inhibitory therapies or for which no inhibitory therapies exist, explained Kymera Co-Founder and CEO Nello Mainolfi to BioSpace in an interview.

Exemplary of this therapeutic’s potential are the favorable results coming out of their current Phase 1 clinical trial. The trial is comprised of three stages, cumulating in the evaluation of Kymera’s leading research product, KT-474, in the treatment of autoimmune disorders such as hidradenitis suppuravita (HS) and atopic dermatitis (AD). These conditions have been shown to be strongly related to the functions and pathways of Interleukin (IL)-1 receptor/Toll-like receptors (IL-1R/TLR) like IL-1, IL-18, IL-33, and IL-36, and are considered to have a high unmet medical need due to limited or lack of available treatment options.

Kymera doesn’t intend to stop there, additionally unveiling KT-253 at today’s exposition. As a first-in-class selective MDM2 degrader, they believe that the product of their next development program will have “the potential to be the best-in-class p53 stabilizer for a wide variety of solid and liquid tumors, with an IND filing expected in 2022,” said Mainolfi in the press release accompanying today’s presentations. As a wild-type copy of the tumor-suppressant gene p53 remains intact in over 50% of cancers, though disabled by excessive amounts of MDM2, a TPD-based therapeutic like KT-253 may have the potential to treat a wide-range of solid tumors.

Other notable products include KT-413, a TPD therapy that will be assessed for safety and preliminary efficacy against MYD88 mutant and MYD88 wild-type relapsed/refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) in an upcoming Phase 1 trial, as well as KT-333, another TPD therapy that will be similarly evaluated by a Phase 1 trial in cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL), large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGL-L), peripheral T cell lymphoma (PTCL), and solid tumors.

This positive momentum continues into Kymera’s forward-looking 5-year plan, which includes at least 8 more clinical-stage programs in addition to a pipeline schedule that outputs at least one new Investigational New Drug per year.

Mainolfi credited the cooperation, passion, and dedication of his Kymera colleagues for their incredible progress, referencing the warm and encouraging atmosphere they all work to create – unsurprising, it would seem, from the CEO of a company named one of Boston’s “Best Places to Work” by the Boston Business Journal. After all, don’t happy, passionate researchers make for efficient, impactful results?

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