Merck KGaA’s Inspirna bet goes south

Privately held Inspirna, best known for snagging Merck KGaA as a partner for its lead project ompenaclid, is winding down, it announced in a LinkedIn post. The trigger was apparently ompenaclid’s failure in a phase 2 trial in RAS-mutant relapsed colorectal cancer, first disclosed during Merck’s fourth-quarter earnings call in early March. The German company confirmed to ApexOnco that it’s no longer developing ompenaclid. Even when the group licensed the SLC6a8 inhibitor outside the US in January 2024 the signs weren’t great: a phase 1/2 trial in second-line CRC found an ORR of 37% with ompenaclid plus Avastin, but some patients were Avastin-naive, so might have been responding to the approved drug. According to OncologyPipeline no other companies are studying SLC6a8 inhibition. Inspirna’s second project, the LXR-β agonist abequolixron, is similarly novel, with several preclinical rivals against this target, but no other clinical-stage assets. Merck has struck various small deals of late, most recently exercising a global option on Abbisko’s CSF-1R inhibitor pimicotinib, to which it previously had Asia rights. But investors are awaiting news on a much bigger potential purchase, of SpringWorks; things have gone quiet since Merck confirmed in February that the companies were in advanced discussions.

What Inspirna had in the pipeline

Source: OncologyPipeline.

This story has been updated to include comments from Merck KGaA.