Mural hits a wall

The writing was already on the wall for Mural Oncology last month after one failure with its IL-2 project nemvaleukin alfa, and now it’s official: following a second disappointment, the group will “explore strategic alternatives” and cut its workforce by 90%.

The latest flop came in the uncontrolled phase 2 Artistry-6 melanoma study. Mural said on Tuesday that cohort 2, evaluating nemvaleukin monotherapy in post-PD-(L)1 mucosal melanoma, didn’t meet its primary endpoint of overall response rate, presumably failing to clear a previously stated 25% bar.

The company also disclosed that cohort 3, testing less frequent dosing of nemvaleukin monotherapy in post-PD-(L)1/LAG3 cutaneous melanoma, hadn’t shown enough activity to warrant further development.

Artistry-6 had also been testing nemvaleukin plus Keytruda in first-line cutaneous melanoma, but Mural has already decided to throw in the towel, ceasing all clinical development.

The engineered IL-2 last month failed in the Artistry-7 study, where it was being studied alongside Keytruda in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. There had once been hopes that nemvaleukin might be different from other IL-2 contenders, based on the phase 1/2 Artistry-1 study, but these have come to nothing.

The cytokine field has a torrid history: the poster child for this approach, Nektar’s bempegaldesleukin, managed to attract a $1.9bn licensing deal from Bristol Myers Squibb, but was shelved in 2022 after various disappointments.

Mural, which spun out of Alkermes in 2023, still has preclinical assets in MURA-8518 and MURA-7012, engineered versions of IL-18 and IL-12 respectively. However, confidence around cytokine approaches must be lower than ever.

At the last count Mural had $144m in cash, which was deemed enough to get it into the first quarter of 2026. Presumably with the headcount reduction the group will be able to limp on for a little longer, but finding a buyer or partner could be tricky. The company said it hadn't yet had any approaches, and wasn't in any active discussions.

So-called “zombie” companies are facing calls to liquidate and return money to shareholders. Indeed, the leading investor of another failed group, Essa Pharma, recommended this course of action in a letter to that company this week. Last year Essa stopped development of its androgen receptor inhibitor masofaniten, and began exploring strategic alternatives after a prostate cancer failure.