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TuHURA Biosciences Enters into Exclusivity and Right of First Offer Agreement for Kineta, Inc.'s KVA12123 Novel anti-VISTA Checkpoint Inhibitor
KVA12123 is a rationally targeted, anti-VISTA antibody checkpoint inhibitor to reverse VISTA immune suppression and remodel the tumor microenvironment (TME)
About this update from Tuhura Biosciences, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"KVA12123 is a rationally targeted, anti-VISTA antibody checkpoint inhibitor to reverse VISTA immune suppression and remodel the tumor microenvironment (TME) to overcome acquired resistance to immunotherapies\nKVA12123 is currently in a Phase 1/Phase 2 clinical study as a monotherapy and in combination with Merck's anti-PD1 therapy, KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), in patients with advanced solid tumors\nTo date, KVA12123 has demonstrated a favorable clinical safety and tolerability profile observed with no dose limiting toxicities and no evidence of Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS) associated toxicities at doses examined\nConcurrent $5 million investment from existing TuHURA shareholder preserves TuHURA's strong balance sheet for advancing its IFx-2.0 Phase 3 accelerated approval trial and novel bi-functional ADCs\nTAMPA, Fla. and SAN DIEGO, July 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- TuHURA Biosciences, Inc. (\"TuHURA\"), a Phase 3 registration-stage immune-oncology company developing novel technologies to overcome resistance to cancer immunotherapy, and Kintara Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTRA) (\"Kintara\"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new solid tumor cancer therapies, today announced TuHURA has entered into an Exclusivity and Right of First Offer Agreement (the \"Agreement\") with Kineta, Inc. (Nasdaq: KA) (\"Kineta\") for the potential acquisition of Kineta's KVA12123 anti-VISTA antibody and related rights and assets associated with and derived from the asset.\n\"KVA12123 has multiple synergies with both of our IFx and Delta receptor technologies and could be a promising addition to our pipeline, bringing in a potential Phase 2 ready, novel checkpoint inhibitor,\" commented Dr. James Bianco, Chief Executive Officer of TuHURA. \"Unlike other checkpoint inhibitors which work on activated T-cells, KVA12123 focuses on VISTA, which is the only known checkpoint on quiescent T-cells preventing their activation and represents a promising new target in cancer immunotherapy. VISTA is highly overexpressed on tumors known not to respond to currently marketed checkpoint inhibitors most notably gynecologic cancers like ovarian cancer. They are also expressed on myeloid cells including tumor associated myeloid-derived suppressor cells (\"MDSCs\"), which, like VISTA, are also implicated in TME immunosuppression. Our novel bi-functi...