By Colin Kellaher
Ikena Oncology shares lost more than two-thirds of their value and hit an all-time low after the clinical-stage biotechnology company shared initial data from the ongoing dose-escalation portion of a Phase I study of cancer drug IK-930, its lead targeted-oncology program.
Shares of the Boston company were recently down 69% to $1.28 after briefly touching an all-time low of $1.26.
Ikena said while it saw a favorable safety profile in dose escalation to date, treatment-related proteinuria, or elevated protein in the urine, was recorded in three of the 26 patients treated as of Oct. 31, adding the events were considered mild to moderate and didn’t result in dose reduction or treatment interruption.
IK-930 is a TEAD-1 selective inhibitor of the Hippo pathway, a known tumor suppressor pathway that also drives resistance to multiple targeted therapies, and Ikena said proteinuria is an adverse effect of special interest, as it may be an on-target effect of broad TEAD inhibition.
Ikena also said it saw encouraging signs of clinical activity and tumor shrinkage in multiple patients with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a rare, difficult-to-treat soft tissue sarcoma.
Ikena also said two patients with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma experienced reversible liver enzyme elevation, including one patient who experienced moderate to severe elevation that was deemed possibly treatment related.
Ikena said IK-930 is in the final stages of dose optimization, and it plans to give an additional clinical data update in the second half of 2024.
Write to Colin Kellaher at [email protected]
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