Kura Oncology Launches $50M-Backed Diabetes Venture for Oral Menin Inhibitor

Key Points

• Kura Oncology and Caspian Therapeutics launched a diabetes venture to develop KO-7246, an oral menin inhibitor, with $50 million in financing. Kura contributed the program and retains about 50% ownership while focusing primarily on oncology.
• Preclinical studies in animals and human islet microtissues suggested KO-7246 may expand insulin-producing beta cells, improve glucose control and sustain benefits after treatment, though some diabetic animals did not respond.
• Caspian plans IND-enabling studies and expects to begin healthy-volunteer trials in 2027, with broader program data potentially arriving in late 2028 or early 2029. Development will focus on safety, chronic dosing and patient selection using stimulated C-peptide levels.

Kura Oncology NASDAQ: KURA and its newly formed affiliate Caspian Therapeutics outlined plans to develop KO-7246, an oral menin inhibitor, for diabetes, citing preclinical data that the companies said showed beta-cell expansion, improved glucose control and sustained effects after treatment ended.

Kura contributed KO-7246, related intellectual property and know-how to Caspian, which will lead development of the diabetes program. Caspian has raised $50 million in financing led by BVF Partners, with participation from the T1D Fund, Invus, Montanova, Eli Lilly and Company, Kura and other investors. The proceeds are expected to fund IND-enabling work, an initial clinical proof-of-concept program and advancement of a second menin inhibitor candidate.

Kura retains approximately 50% ownership of Caspian. According to Kura President and Chief Executive Officer and Caspian Executive Chairman Troy Wilson, the structure provides the diabetes program with dedicated leadership and financing while allowing Kura to remain focused on oncology.

Preclinical findings presented at EASD

Kura Chief Scientific Officer Francis Burrows said menin acts as a brake on beta-cell division by controlling expression of CDK inhibitor genes. The company is investigating whether inhibiting menin could enable the body to rebuild insulin-producing beta-cell capacity in people with diabetes.

In a mouse model of type 2 diabetes, Burrows said semaglutide reduced blood sugar rapidly, though the effect weakened over time. KO-7246 produced a more gradual reduction in blood sugar over seven weeks while insulin levels increased. The combination of KO-7246 and semaglutide produced both a rapid initial reduction and a sustained effect in the study, according to the company.

Burrows said no hypoglycemia was observed in KO-7246-treated mice, including animals receiving the combination treatment. After 28 days of treatment, the company observed larger insulin-positive islets and improved blood-sugar control.

In rats treated with streptozotocin, a chemical that destroys beta cells, KO-7246 produced a substantial blood-glucose effect over eight weeks in some animals. Responding animals regained normal blood-sugar control, while others did not respond. Burrows said the binary response was consistent with the need for a sufficient surviving beta-cell population to serve as a starting point for regeneration.

Among responding rats, islets recovered to between 40% and 90% of healthy-control levels by day 56. The company said blood-sugar control and stimulated C-peptide levels remained elevated after treatment was discontinued and animals were followed for an additional month.

Kura also evaluated KO-7246 in human islet microtissues. Burrows said the compound increased beta-cell proliferation across multiple donor samples and did not increase proliferation in other cell types in those experiments. By comparison, the research compound harmine, a DYRK1A inhibitor, stimulated both beta and non-beta cell proliferation, according to Kura.

Comparison with other menin inhibitors

Kura said KO-7246 was approximately three times more potent in vitro than balomenib, another menin inhibitor in development for diabetes, and showed stronger antitumor activity at one-quarter of the dose in a menin-dependent mouse leukemia model.

The company also compared KO-7246 with icovamenib, or BMF-219. Burrows said icovamenib did not measurably block the menin-MLL interaction in Kura’s assay and did not show efficacy in its menin-dependent animal model, even at eight times the KO-7246 dose. Kura reported that icovamenib instead showed inhibition of several kinases, including CDK9, c-Kit and ABL.

Burrows said the results did not support menin-MLL inhibition as icovamenib’s mechanism in Kura’s assays, while identifying CDK9 inhibition as a separate pharmacologic activity.

Clinical development plans

Caspian President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Spencer said the company’s initial clinical objective is to characterize KO-7246’s safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile for chronic use and assess whether it can improve endogenous insulin production in people with diabetes.

The company plans to advance KO-7246 through IND-enabling studies, including toxicology, exposure, manufacturing and drug-supply work. Wilson said Caspian expects to begin studying the drug in healthy volunteers next year, with data from the broader program anticipated in late 2028 or possibly early 2029.

Patient selection will be a key part of the development strategy, Spencer said. Caspian expects to use stimulated C-peptide, a marker of endogenous insulin production, as a central measure of activity and to consider patients’ baseline C-peptide levels and degree of insulin deficiency. The company said it sees potential relevance in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Management said KO-7246 could potentially complement existing standard-of-care treatments, including GLP-1 receptor agonists, rather than function solely as a conventional glucose-lowering drug. The companies have not yet determined whether the treatment will require chronic, intermittent or fixed-course dosing.

Burrows said KO-7246 was designed with chronic metabolic use in mind, including efforts to eliminate interactions with the CYP system and hERG channel and to evaluate genotoxicity. The compound is intended for once-daily oral dosing, he said.

About Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA)

Kura Oncology, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing precision medicines for the treatment of cancer. The company uses molecular and genomic insights to identify therapies designed to target specific biological drivers of tumor growth.

Kura's lead program is ziftomenib, an oral menin inhibitor developed for genetically defined forms of acute myeloid leukemia, including disease associated with NPM1 mutations and KMT2A rearrangements. The company has also evaluated additional targeted oncology candidates, including therapies directed at the RAF-MEK-ERK signaling pathway.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Kura has conducted clinical development activities through research collaborations and studies involving patients and institutions in the United States and other regions.

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