Kura Oncology develops drug therapy for HRAS mutation cancers

Kura Oncology CEO Troy Wilson spoke with Informa Pharma Intelligence at BioPharm America 2016 about his company's precision medicine approach to treating cancer. Its most advanced drug candidate, tipifarnib showed promising clinical activity in a Phase II trial in HRAS-expressing solid tumors such as head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma and salivary gland cancer. He talked about the potential importance of these data because HRAS mutation cancers have no currently approved drug therapy. The La Jolla, Calif.-based company also is working toward filing an IND for a second clinical candidate, an ERK inhibitor, and anticipates selecting a candidate to take forward in Menin-mixed lineage leukemia this year.