Kura Oncology, a clinical-stage biopharma company based in San-Diego, USA focused on the development of cancer medicine, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Kyowa Kirin to develop and commercialise Ziftomenib, Kura’s selective oral menin inhibitor, currently being explored for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other hematologic malignancies.

The agreement will see Kura receive an initial payment of $330 million followed by potential milestone payments of up to $420 million. This includes a payment once Ziftomenib has been launched in the monotherapy relapsed/refractory (R/R) setting. Kura may also receive additional development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of $741 million.

As well as being responsible for the manufacture of Ziftomenib, Kura will lead the U.S. strategies in development, regulation and commercialisation; Kyowa Kirin will lead these strategies outside of the USA co-created U.S. territory.

Kyowa Kirin is a pharmaceutical company based in Tokyo, Japan that focuses on the discovery and development of new medicines, as it has done for over 70 years. The company is currently working on the development of engineered antibodies and cell and gene therapies.