Ikena slashes workforce, cuts back discovery work to focus on lead oncology assets

19 Jan 2024
firstwordpharma.com
Phase 1PROTACs
Ikena Oncology plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 35% as it focuses efforts on its two clinical-stage cancer drugs.
The company noted that the downsizing will see it reallocate resources from exploratory research and discovery towards advancing development of the lead assets IK-930 and IK-595. CEO Mark Manfredi said Ikena expects “interpretable and clear data reads” for the two candidates this year.
In November, Ikena’s shares sunk 69% after initial data from the dose-escalation part of IK-930’s Phase I study in patients with mesothelioma and epithelioid hemangioendothelioma highlighted proteinuria as an adverse effect of special interest. The company said that an optimised formulation of the TEAD1-selective Hippo pathway inhibitor is now being investigated alongside the original formulation, with an update expected in the latter part of 2024.
Meanwhile, dose escalation is ongoing in a study of IK-595, a MEK-RAF molecular glue, with the programme continuing to enrol patients with RAS and RAF mutations.
Ikena had around $175 million in cash and equivalents as of December 31, which is now expected to fund operations into the first half of 2026.
For more details,please visit the original website
The content of the article does not represent any opinions of Synapse and its affiliated companies. If there is any copyright infringement or error, please contact us, and we will deal with it within 24 hours.
Organizations
Indications
Targets
Drugs
Chat with Hiro
Get started for free today!
Accelerate Strategic R&D decision making with Synapse, PatSnap’s AI-powered Connected Innovation Intelligence Platform Built for Life Sciences Professionals.
Start your data trial now!
Synapse data is also accessible to external entities via APIs or data packages. Empower better decisions with the latest in pharmaceutical intelligence.