Nuvation Bio is narrowing its focus. Having gone into the year planning to advance a pair of solid tumor programs toward the clinic, the biotech has now deprioritized the candidates to focus on its three other assets.
The deprioritized candidates are the WEE1 inhibitor NUV-569 and an adenosine A2A receptor antagonist. Under the previous plan, Nuvation aimed to apply to begin a trial for NUV-569 and select a clinical A2A candidate by the end of the year. Despite ending March with $737.7 million available, Nuvation has chosen to step back from the programs to funnel its resources into two more advanced candidates and one early-stage project.
That decision will set back the development of prospects that Nuvation previously pitched as filling gaps in the arsenal of solid tumor treatments. WEE1 inhibitors such as NUV-569 may boost the efficacy of DNA-damaging therapies by forcing tumors to replicate damaged DNA before it is fixed. That prospect has attracted companies including AstraZeneca, which has run a series of clinical trials over the past decade, but Nuvation bet that the selectivity of NUV-569 would give it an edge over other compounds.
NUV-569 has landed on the back burner at the same time as Nuvation’s A2A program. Last year, the biotech talked up the prospect of taking an A2A candidate, NUV-1182, into phase 1 by the end of 2022. The target later slipped to clinical candidate selection by the end of 2022.
Now, Nuvation is deprioritizing the A2A program, despite previously arguing it can better the selectivity of other compounds aimed at the target. Preclinical tests suggested NUV-1182 may enhance the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors, but Nuvation is holding off on moving its A2A program toward the clinic.
The deprioritization of the assets puts Nuvation’s focus squarely on NUV-422, NUV-868 and DDC. The CDK2/4/6 inhibitor NUV-422 is in a clutch of trials, and the BET inhibitor NUV-868 is on the cusp of the clinic. Nuvation plans to select a clinical candidate from its DDC—drug-drug conjugate—program by the end of the year.