Kinnate Biopharma Inc. in Collaboration with Guardant Health Announces Initial Findings from BRAF Kinase Alteration Genomic Landscape and Real-World Clinical Outcomes Study

Rhea-AI Summary

Kinnate Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: KNTE) has announced a collaboration with Guardant Health to explore BRAF alterations in over 175,000 patients. The study targets advanced solid tumors, highlighting the prevalence of Class II and III alterations, which affect more than half of BRAF-positive patients. Preliminary analyses show that approximately 55% of identified patients have Class II and III alterations, especially in common cancers like NSCLC, Melanoma, and CRC. This partnership aims to inform the development of targeted therapies for these difficult-to-treat cancers.

Positive

• Collaboration with Guardant Health enhances research on BRAF alterations.
• Preliminary findings indicate a significant prevalence of Class II and III BRAF alterations in over 55% of patients with BRAF alteration-positive cancers.
• Potential to develop targeted therapies for a significant unmet clinical need among cancer patients.

Negative

• No existing targeted therapies for patients with Class II and III BRAF alterations, indicating a potential gap in treatment options.

• BRAF clinical-genomic landscape research initiative to investigate real-world data from more than 175,000 patients across tumor types, patient demographics and treatment settings

• Preliminary analyses found that more than half of the patients identified as having BRAF alteration-positive cancers harbored Class II and III alterations across all tumor types
  

SAN FRANCISCO and SAN DIEGO, Nov. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kinnate Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: KNTE) (“Kinnate”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule kinase inhibitors for difficult-to-treat, genomically defined cancers, today announced a collaboration with Guardant Health, a leading precision oncology company, focused on characterizing the prevalence of patients with advanced solid tumors bearing BRAF Class I, II and III alterations. The study will also assess real-world clinical outcomes stratified by BRAF alteration class and by treatment type.

“Currently, patients with Class II and III BRAF alterations have no available targeted therapies and represent a significant and potentially greater unmet clinical need than previously understood,” said Richard Williams, MBBS, Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer at Kinnate. “With a focus on metastatic disease and longitudinal genomics data, GuardantINFORM™ has provided valuable insights into this important biomarker that will help us to guide the development of our lead BRAF candidate. We believe that this collaboration with Guardant Health will enable a deeper look at the occurrence rates of functionally distinct classes of BRAF alterations across patient groups and help advance our efforts to develop novel targeted therapies that improve their lives.”

Preliminary analyses conducted utilizing the GuardantINFORM platform suggest that the prevalence of Class II and III alterations across patients with advanced and metastatic solid tumors screened via liquid biopsy-based comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) is higher than previously understood. Among the nearly 6,000 patients who were identified as having BRAF alteration-positive cancers, approximately 55% were found to be harboring Class II and III alterations across all tumor types. When looking across common tumor types – Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), Melanoma and Colorectal Cancer (CRC) – approximately 65%, 20% and 30% of oncogenic BRAF alterations, respectively, are BRAF Class II and III. In addition to NSCLC, Melanoma, and CRC, BRAF Class II and III alterations are also detected at substantial rates in other common and rare tumor types such as prostate, breast, duodenal adenocarcinoma, renal pelvis urothelial carcinoma, and cholangiocarcinoma. These findings, as well as other studies that will assess real-world clinical outcomes stratified by BRAF Class and by treatment, are planned for presentation at a future date.

“Analysis of large-scale, real-world clinical-genomic datasets has become a critical approach for our biopharmaceutical partners like Kinnate to gain unique insights into disease biology, prevalence, and clinical outcomes across diverse patient populations,” said Daniel Simon, Senior Vice President of Biopharma Solutions at Guardant Health. “Through GuardantINFORM, we can provide our partners like Kinnate with a unique perspective into biomarkers such as BRAF that drive tumors for patient populations where there is greatest unmet need.”

Kinnate is utilizing the GuardantINFORM platform which combines de-identified longitudinal clinical information and genomic data collected from the Guardant360^® liquid biopsy test which has been provided to more than 175,000 patients to date in the United States. Its robust dataset offers real-world insights into anti-cancer therapy use in the clinic, tumor evolution, and treatment resistance throughout each patient’s treatment journey for many advanced solid tumor cancers including NSCLC, Melanoma, Breast, CRC and Prostrate.

About Kinnate
Kinnate is focused on the discovery and development of small molecule kinase inhibitors for difficult-to-treat, genomically defined cancers. Kinnate’s mission is to expand the reach of targeted therapeutics by developing products for underserved populations. Kinnate utilizes its deep expertise in structure-based drug discovery, translational research, and patient-driven precision medicine, which it refers to as the Kinnate Discovery Engine, to develop targeted therapies. Based in San Francisco and San Diego, California, the Kinnate team is composed of drug discovery experts supported by a distinguished group of scientific advisors. For more information, please visit www.kinnate.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the progress of our clinical trials, the potential benefits of our product candidates and our efforts to characterize the prevalence of patients with BRAF alterations. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “will,” “goal,” “potential” and similar expressions are also intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends. Such expectations and projections may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including risks related to operating as a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history; our ability to raise additional capital to finance our operations; our ability to discover, advance through the preclinical and clinical development of, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidates; the novel approach we are taking to discover and develop drugs; our ability to timely file and obtain approval of investigational new drug applications for our planned clinical trials; the potential for any clinical trial results to differ from our preclinical trial results; negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, including ongoing and planned clinical trials and ongoing and planned preclinical trials; competition in our industry; regulatory developments in the United States and other countries; our ability to attract, hire and retain highly skilled executive officers and employees; difficulties in managing our growth; our ability to protect our intellectual property; reliance on third parties to conduct our preclinical studies and any ongoing and planned future clinical trials, and to manufacture our product candidates; general economic and market conditions; and other risks.

These and other risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors are further described under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2021 that we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), as well as in our subsequent filings we make with the SEC. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements. Investors should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason in the future.

Contacts:

Investors:
Patti Bank
Westwicke, an ICR Company
415-513-1284
investors@kinnate.com 

Media:
Colin Sanford
203-918-4347
colin@bioscribe.com 

 

FAQ

What is Kinnate Biopharma's collaboration with Guardant Health about?

Kinnate Biopharma is collaborating with Guardant Health to study BRAF alterations in over 175,000 patients with advanced solid tumors.

What percentage of BRAF alteration-positive patients have Class II and III alterations?

Approximately 55% of patients identified as having BRAF alteration-positive cancers harbor Class II and III alterations.

What tumor types are included in the Kinnate Biopharma study on BRAF alterations?

The study includes common tumor types such as Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Melanoma, and Colorectal Cancer.

What is the significance of Class II and III BRAF alterations?

Class II and III BRAF alterations represent a significant unmet clinical need, as there are currently no targeted therapies for these alterations.

What platform is Kinnate Biopharma using for the BRAF alteration study?

Kinnate Biopharma is using the GuardantINFORM platform, which provides insights from liquid biopsy-based genomic profiling.