Mural fails to paint a convincing picture for nemvaleukin

Hopes around cytokine therapies aren’t what they once were, but Mural Oncology’s stock still opened down 55% this morning on the failure of the phase 3 Artistry-7 trial, testing the group’s IL-2 project nemvaleukin plus Keytruda, versus chemotherapy, in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

Based on overall survival data from an interim analysis, Mural said it was discontinuing both the study and nemvaleukin’s development in this use. Median OS was 10.1 months for nemvaleukin plus Keytruda versus 9.8 months for investigator’s choice of chemo, with a hazard ratio of 0.98.

The Alkermes spin out had once hoped that nemvaleukin might have an edge over other IL-2 contenders, based on initial results from the phase 1/2 Artistry-1 study. However, the asset began to look more similar than different to the likes of Nektar’s bempegaldesleukin, which managed to attract a $1.9bn licensing deal from Bristol Myers Squibb before being shelved in 2022.

Mural doesn’t have much else in its pipeline – the next big readout will also involve nemvaleukin, in the phase 2 Artistry-6 trial, with data expected next quarter from the potentially registrational cohort 2, testing monotherapy in mucosal melanoma.

Mural has set a target overall response rate of 25%. Artistry-1 previously found an ORR of 33% in mucosal melanoma, but this result came in just six patients, and one of these responses was unconfirmed.

The group’s other assets are preclinical: MURA-8518 and MURA-7012, engineered versions of IL-18 and IL-12 respectively. But cash and time are running out for Mural. As of December 2024, the company had $144m, enough to get it into the first quarter of 2026.

Registrational trials of nemvaleukin

Source: OncologyPipeline & company releases.