Mark Goldsmith
Analyst · SVB Leerink. Your line is open
Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. We're very pleased to report that during the fourth quarter of 2021, Revolution Medicine's continued building momentum with our targeted therapeutics pipeline, advancing our mission to improve treatments on behalf of patients with a wide range of RAS-addicted cancers, representing some 30% of all cancer patients. As depicted on slide five, RAS-addicted cancers are induced primarily by mutations that cause RAS (ON) proteins to behave as cancer drivers. That often these cancers are also supported and maintained by other cellular proteins recall RAS cooperating targets and pathways. We believe it is important scientifically to match our treatment strategies to this biological cooperativity by developing RAS (ON) inhibitors to suppress the primary RAS drivers, as well as RAS compounding inhibitors, to suppress the cooperating proteins. In many instances, we expect drugs of these two types may be combined to deliver the greatest clinical benefit. I'll spend the next few minutes briefly recapping four drug candidates that constitute our development stage RAS-on inhibitor portfolio, directed against RAS variants that are the primary drivers of RAS-addicted cancers. Dr. Steve Kelsey, our President of R&D will then highlight recent updates on our critical stage RAS companion inhibitors, RMC-4630 SHP2 and RMC-5552 mTORC1. Our first RAS (ON) inhibitor, RMC-6236 is an innovative and exciting drug candidates, our first-in-class RAS multi (ON) inhibitor with potentially very broad utility across many RAS cancer variants. As shown on slide 12, initially, we are particularly interested in more than 130,000 new pancreatic, colorectal and/or lung cancer patients in the US each year with tumors bearing one of various mutations at amino acid 12 and KRAS, the dominant hotspot for KRAS cancer mutations. We refer to these collectively as G12X Mutations. RMC-6236 has demonstrated strong single agent activity across numerous cancer models with such G12X driver mutations derived from non-small cell lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancer patients. We believe this compound has the potential to be the first RAS targeted therapy for many patients still reliant upon chemotherapy, including those with tumors bearing KRAS G12D or KRAS G12 new mutations. This compound is in the late stages of IND preparation and we are on track to submit an IND in the coming months and then to begin single agent dose escalation with an initial focus on patients with various tumors carrying KRAS G12X mutations. During dose escalation, we plan to deploy a dynamic below MTD expansion strategy to help us both find the right dose and schedule and discover the most sensitive tumor types as efficiently as possible. The next compound RMC-6291 is our first meeting mutant selective inhibitor plans to enter the clinic. This one focus specifically on the KRAS G12C. RMC-6291 is differentiated from first generation KRAS G12 off inhibitors, which sequester the KRAS G12C off form by its mechanism of directly inhibiting the KRAS G12C on or active protein form. We believe direct inhibition of the ON form of RAS cancer variants offers important biological advantages that could translate into meaningful increases in patient benefit relative to KRAS G12C off inhibitors. Based on extensive preclinical characterization, showing compelling response rates depth and durability, we believe RMC-6291 has best-in-class potential for treating KRAS G12C cancers, addressing approximately 29,000 new US patients per year, primarily with lung or colorectal cancers. As with the 6263 compound, as shown in slide 16, we expect to submit an IND for our RMC-6291 in the first half of this year, followed by beginning single agent dose escalation in patients with various tumors carrying a KRAS-G12C mutations. Likewise, we plan to deploy a dynamic below MTD expansion strategy to help us both find the right dose and obtain anti tumor activity data in select populations as efficiently as possible. Our overall ambition is to demonstrate clinical superiority to the first generation KRAS-G12C off inhibitors. In addition to progress in 6236, and 6291 through IND submission as expected in the first half of this year, we recently announced two new RAS(ON) inhibitors from our RAS innovation platform that have advanced into IND enabling development. The first is RMC-9805. summarized on slide 17, a remarkable mutant selective inhibitor of the KRAS G12D cancer driver is highly potent and benefits from what we believe to be the first ever highly selective covalent engagement of the oxygenic aspartic acid in this clinically important RAS variant. Indeed, it appears to be the first drug candidate ever to deploy this selective target binding mechanism directed against an aspartic containing disease target. Like our other development stage acids, it is also all bioavailable, promoting effective target coverage in cancer cells. We recently showed that RMC-9805 drives deep and durable anti-tumor responses as a single agent in pre-clinical KRAS G12D pancreatic and colorectal cancer models in vivo. We aim to file an IND for this highly innovative compound in the first half of 2023. Our second new development candidate is RMC-8839 summarized on slide 20, an exciting mutant-selective inhibitor of the KRAS G13C cancer variant. That forms a selective bond with the oncogenic cysteine in this KRAS target that has not been previously drugged. Like our other development stage, RAS arm inhibitors RMC-8839 exhibits attractive potency, selectivity and oral bioavailability and was shown recently to drive significant anti-tumor responses as a single agent in pre-clinical KRAS G13C lung cancer models in vivo. We aim to file an IND for this novel compound in the second half of 2023. Beyond these four groundbreaking development stage RAS(ON) inhibitors, I mentioned earlier that our strategy also includes developing specific KRAS companion inhibitors, as illustrated on slide 24. Targeted drug has suppressed cooperating targets and pathways known to work in coordination with KRAS cancer drivers to sustain KRAS addicted cancers, and in some instances, confer drug resistance. We believe that combining best-in-class KRAS inhibitors with best-in-class companion inhibitors, offers the greatest chance to deliver the best clinical outcomes. In that context, Dr. Kelsey will review briefly two clinical stage assets that are designed to support combination treatment approaches. Steve?