Ignota Labs bids to revive Kronos' failed clinical assets
It has acquired Boston-gated company Kronos’s clinical assets, istisociclib – a CDK9 inhibitor – and entospletinib and lanraplenib, SYK inhibitors.
Kronos’ valuation peaked at $3.5 billion after its IPO; however, it failed to progress its assets past Phase 2 trials and subsequently ceased operations. Given the challenges relating to safety and clinical positioning, Ignota Labs saw promise in the clinical portfolio and has acquired Kronos’s clinical IP in full for an undisclosed sum.
Ignota Labs combines cheminformatics and bioinformatics in its AI platform, SAFEPATH, to identify the root causes of safety issues and improve safety while maintaining therapeutic effectiveness. The company’s proprietary process will now assess the Kronos assets to identify the issue, solve the causes of toxicity, and develop the drug clinically and commercially to get it to patients.
Sam Windsor, Co-Founder and CEO at Ignota Labs, said: “We are acquiring assets that have demonstrated therapeutic effect, but failed in their development and were shelved despite tens of millions of dollars already invested in them. This is where Ignota Labs come in: unlocking value by turning around failing drugs so that they can quickly get back into clinical trials and bring fresh hope to the patients waiting for these drugs.”
Blood cancers and autoimmune disorders remain large, underserved markets. Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is an $8bn market globally, and immune thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) represents a $1.5bn opportunity. By reviving these clinical assets, Ignota Labs is uniquely positioned to address these substantial patient and market needs.
Dr. Jordan Lane, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, said: “These drugs are desperately needed. Both CKD9 inhibitors and SYK inhibitors have shown clinical benefit to patients. By in-licensing these drugs, we are uniquely placed to bring these best-in-class drugs to patients with diseases that desperately need them.”
Ignota Labs turns around promising but failing drugs, bringing new life to abandoned projects and new hope to patients. In preclinical and clinical studies, safety assessments typically reveal what went wrong—such as liver damage or heart issues – but fail to explain why these issues occurred, or how they might be mitigated.
Its SAFEPATH AI platform is first-of-its-kind AI and combines advanced machine learning models with a multimodal data approach to enable a deep understanding of toxicity mechanisms, and offers actionable insights to facilitate drug turnaround.
The clinical stage company was founded by Cambridge researchers and pharmaceutical consultants alongside investors including AIX Ventures, Montage Ventures, and Modi Ventures.
