Menarini and Insilico ink license deal for novel KAT6 inhibitor

Privately-held Italian drugmaker Menarini has announced two licensing deals.

Menarini and its US subsidiary Stemline Therapeutics have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with AI-driven biotech Insilico Medicines granting Stemline the global rights to develop and commercialize a novel, small molecule KAT6A inhibitor designed using Insilico’s AI platform, as a potential treatment for hormone sensitive cancers and other oncology indications.

Menarini explained that KAT6A is known to play an important role in several cancers. Overexpression of KAT6A correlates with poor clinical outcomes in patients with ER+/HER2- breast cancer, the most common subtype of breast cancer. In pre-clinical studies, the molecule has demonstrated potent inhibition against KAT6A in multiple CDX and PDX models with good efficacy and safety. Insilico presented data on the molecule at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in early December.