Jazz joins the KRAS band with Redx deal

Jazz and Redx are long-time collaborators, and today Jazz acquired the UK group’s preclinical KRAS inhibitors for $10m up front. The KRAS pipeline is very crowded, but for Jazz the deal is small and probably worth the gamble. Redx, meanwhile, keeps selling off assets as its cash runs out – at last count the company only had enough to last until the third quarter. The projects Jazz picked up today include G12D-selective and pan-KRAS inhibitors. Currently approved KRAS inhibitors hit G12C and, while there has also been a surge of interest in G12D, data so far with the latter have been unimpressive, so there is room for improvement. There is less competition in pan-KRAS inhibition; Revolution Medicines is in the lead here with RMC-6236, which produced promising data – with caveats – at ESMO 2023. Quanta is taking an interesting approach, with its multi-KRAS inhibitor QTX3034 said to be “G12D preferring”. Jazz previously tapped Redx for a pan-RAF inhibitor and projects targeting the MAPK pathway, so it clearly sees promise in the technology. In 2017 Redx sold pirtobrutinib (now Jaypirca) to Loxo for $40m – that group became part of Lilly, and the drug sold $75m in 2023.

Clinical-stage KRAS G12D inhibitors

*Investigator-sponsored study. Source: OncologyPipeline.