Kronos Bio Streamlines for Enhanced Clinical Focus and Cash Extension

Kronos Bio, Inc., a biopharmaceutical firm, has announced strategic measures to optimize its resource allocation and extend its financial runway, enabling it to concentrate on key projects within its pipeline. The company is currently engaged in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for KB-0742, an investigational CDK9 inhibitor, which has shown promising anti-tumor activity without severe side effects in patients. The ongoing study has reported positive preliminary safety and efficacy data, prompting Kronos Bio to explore an extended dosing schedule for the drug.

KB-0742 has demonstrated target engagement and tumor regressions at a dosage of 60mg, administered on a three-days-on, four-days-off schedule. The company is now looking to escalate the dosage to 80mg on a four-days-on, three-days-off schedule, which could provide patients with a significantly increased therapeutic window. Kronos Bio plans to use a 3+3 design to efficiently determine the appropriate dosage levels and expects to release topline data from the expanded cohort in the first half of 2025.

In addition to KB-0742, Kronos Bio is also advancing KB-9558, a p300 KAT inhibitor, through IND-enabling studies with the aim of initiating a first-in-human study in 2025. The company's focus is on developing treatments that target deregulated transcription, a common feature of cancer and other serious diseases.

To support these initiatives, Kronos Bio has implemented a restructuring plan, which includes a reduction in workforce of 21%, and expects to extend its cash runway into the second half of 2026. The company's leadership, including President and CEO Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D., has expressed gratitude to all employees for their contributions and emphasized the importance of these measures in streamlining operations and advancing the company's discovery projects and collaborations.

Kronos Bio is committed to presenting updated data from the KB-0742 trial at a medical meeting in mid-2024 and providing further updates on the new dosing schedule in the third quarter of 2024. The company is also set to present preclinical data on KB-9558 at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in April 2024.

Based in San Mateo, California, with a research facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kronos Bio is dedicated to transforming the lives of those affected by cancer through the development of innovative therapies.