Bayer looks to clinical validation for $1.5bn Vividion deal

Bayer’s $1.5bn acquisition of Vividion in 2021 was a huge bet on ways to treat NRF2-driven cancers, especially since the target was a low-profile, preclinical-stage biotech. The takeover could soon see clinical validation as Vividion today said it had dosed the first patients in a phase 1 trial of its lead asset, the KEAP1-activator VVD-130037. KEAP1 is a negative regulator of NRF2, being involved in maintaining intracellular redox homeostasis, and NRF2 inhibition and KEAP1 activation can be seen as anticancer mechanisms. Vividion, which like Bayer’s cell and gene therapy units is run at arm’s length as a separate division, claims that VVD-130037 is a first-in-class clinical candidate to target cancers with activation of the KEAP1/NRF2 pathway, though other companies have been here before. Among projects targeting this pathway, Novartis’s MGY825, in a phase 1 study in lung cancer with mutations including KEAP1, is perhaps the biggest competitor to Vividion’s work, OncologyPipeline reveals. Since KEAP1 mutations are thought to increase cells’ dependence on glutamine, glutaminase inhibitors were once also thought capable of hitting the KEAP1/NRF2 pathway, though the three prominent clinical projects here have recently been discontinued.

Selected industry projects with activity on NRF2-driven cancers

Source: OncologyPipeline.