Kura Oncology secures up to $150M in Bristol Myers equity investment, loan from Hercules Capital

07 Nov 2022
endpts.com
Kura Oncology is set for a few more years, thanks to some new partners. The public oncology biotech put out word last week that it brought in some more funding — which, if maxed out, will extend its runway into 2026. The first amount of financing is from Bristol Myers, which is investing $25 million into the biotech as an equity investment. The second, more substantial financing is in the form of a term loan facility worth $125 million from Hercules Capital. With Bristol Myers, Kura sold the pharma more than 1.3 million shares at $18.25 each via a direct offering, and also added an undisclosed member to the biotech’s “Global Steering Committee.” Kura emphasized via a statement that the company will maintain full ownership and control over its operations and programs. As for Hercules, $10 million would be drawn out for Kura immediately after the deal closes, with $15 million available at Kura’s discretion. An additional two tranches allow for $75 million if certain undisclosed “near-term clinical milestones” are met. The final $25 million can be drawn but relies on Hercules signing off on it. Kura Oncology did not immediately respond to a query from Endpoints News. After the funding was announced, shares of $KURA briefly dipped down 11% Friday morning before partially coming back up. Kura’s next steps come ten months after FDA lifted a clinical hold on a Phase Ib study Kura was conducting on KO-539. That candidate, a menin inhibitormenin inhibitor, is an experimental oral treatment for certain genetic subsets of AML, or acute myeloid leukemia. Regulators had placed the clinical hold on the study two months before — in November 2021 — after a patient died while taking the drug. The death was thought at the time to have been linked to differentiation syndrome, which can appear during AML treatments. CEO Troy Wilson said at the time that Kura was implementing two changes to its mitigation strategy, including monitoring patient cell counts in the first two weeks of treatment and stopping giving the drug if those counts go above a certain threshold at any point.
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