Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: KYMR) made a significant move in the market today, with the stock soaring 14.9% and currently trading at $26.32 per share. The company's surge follows the announcement of its strategy to build an industry-leading immunology pipeline of oral degrader medicines targeting validated pathways with comparable efficacy to biologic therapies.
According to the press release, Kymera is focusing on advancing first-in-class oral degraders with biologics-like activity to address areas of significant patient need and market potential. The company is set to unveil two new programs that have the potential to address multiple immune-mediated diseases, targeting STAT6, the obligate and specific transcription factor of the IL-4/13 pathway, and TYK2, the key scaffolding kinase of the IL-23/IFN pathways. These programs represent essential signaling nodes in genetically and clinically validated pathways driving inflammation in autoimmune diseases that are currently undrugged or inadequately drugged with other technologies.
Nello Mainolfi, Ph.D., Founder, President, and CEO of Kymera Therapeutics, expressed confidence in the company's ability to revolutionize the treatment of complex immuno-inflammatory diseases, stating, "With critical insights from our KT-474 program, a unique target selection strategy, and the ability to block key, validated pathways with a degrader approach that has the potential to be superior to traditional small molecules and comparable to approved biologics, we can deliver on our vision to create transformative therapies that will expand the number of patients who can be treated."
The presentation focused on three first-in-class oral degrader immunology programs, including Kymera's new, wholly-owned STAT6 (KT-621) and TYK2 (KT-294) degraders and its IRAK4 degrader (KT-474).
KT-621 (STAT6) is an essential transcription factor specific to the IL-4/IL-13 signaling pathway and the central driver of type 2 inflammation in allergic diseases. The company expects to initiate a phase 1 clinical trial in the second half of 2024 and report the phase 1 results in 2025.
KT-294 (TYK2) is a member of the Janus kinase (JAK) family required for type I interferon (IFN), IL-12, and IL-23 signaling with both genetic and clinical validation in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Kymera intends to initiate a phase 1 clinical trial in the first half of 2025 and report the phase 1 results in 2025.
KT-474/SAR444656 (IRAK4) is a first-in-class IRAK4 degrader in phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) and atopic dermatitis (AD), with enrollment in both phase 2 trials ongoing and anticipated to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024, and topline data expected in the first half of 2025.
Kymera Therapeutics, founded in 2016, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the field of targeted protein degradation (TPD) to develop medicines that address critical health problems. The company is focused on delivering oral small molecule degraders to provide a new generation of convenient, highly effective therapies for patients with immunological diseases.
The full 8-K submission of the company is available here.
