Kazia Therapeutics is paying $1.4 million upfront to secure a platform for generating epigenetic drugs from an Australian research institute
Brisbane-based QIMR Berghofer developed the AI-integrated drug discovery engine to create epigenetic therapies that target SETDB1, a group of proteins that silence tumor suppressor genes. By targeting SETDB1, the aim is to restore immune signaling in tumors that have become resistant to immunotherapy, including checkpoint inhibitors.
The platform has already produced a lead candidate, dubbed MSETC, which Kazia has touted as a highly selective bicyclic peptide designed to target a novel, disease-associated nuclear SETDB1 complex.
Beyond MSETC, QIMR Berghofer has also developed a pipeline of potential follow-ups that Kezia claimed also have “strong selectivity and intracellular targeting capability,” according to an April 14 release.
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Kazia, which is also based in Australia, has been working on paxalisib, a brain-penetrant inhibitor of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Since licensing the asset from Genentech in 2016, Sydney-based Kazia took paxalisib into a phase 2/3 study in glioblastoma, which failed to hit the mark. Despite the setback, Kazia has been mulling a registrational study in this indication while also assessing the drug in other cancers.
Announcing today’s agreement, Kazia CEO John Friend, M.D., said “SETDB1 represents a compelling emerging target in oncology.”
“With this acquisition, we are extending our strategy to target how cancer controls its own behavior by addressing immune resistance at the chromatin level, one of the earliest layers of tumor immune regulation, alongside transcriptional reprogramming with paxalisib and targeted protein degradation with our PD-L1 platform,” Friend said.
“Together, these programs position Kazia’s pipeline to address cancer therapy across multiple layers of tumor biology,” the CEO added.
