Kura Oncology, Inc.
At Kura Oncology, we are committed to realizing the promise of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer. The genomics revolution is transforming how we treat cancer. We now understand that a patient’s response to treatment depends in part on the cancer’s genetic makeup. This new era of precision medicine offers the potential for innovative treatments that are safer and more effective for patients with certain cancers. We are advancing a pipeline of precision medicines for the treatment of solid tumors and blood cancers. Our small-molecule drug candidates target signaling pathways and other drivers of cancer where there is a strong scientific and clinical rationale to improve outcomes by identifying those patients most likely to benefit from treatment. Our goal is to help patients with cancer lead better, longer lives. Our mission is to realize the promise of precision medicines to help patients with cancer lead better, longer lives.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Clinical Services
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
About Us
Our mission is to realize the promise of precision medicines to help patients with cancer lead better, longer lives.
Our novel therapies are designed to target cancer cells selectively, increasing clinical benefit while moving the field forward in areas with the highest unmet needs. Just as vital to our mission, we’re investigating our novel therapies in combination with standards of care, forging new paths to give patients a better chance for long-term durable remissions.
Our Commitment
Leveraging our deep scientific understanding of cancer biology, including previously untapped molecular drivers of disease, we’re developing medicines that treat cancer with exquisite precision and minimal damage to healthy cells.
To date, such medicines have benefited only a fraction of the cancer patient population. And even for those who do benefit initially, disease usually returns as treatment resistance develops. Through our pioneering science, we’re advancing drug candidates to address these long-standing challenges.
We discover and develop novel cancer therapeutics that seek to improve patient outcomes and enable more patients to benefit.
The Story Behind Our Name
The origins of Kura Oncology began to emerge years before the company launched in 2014.
In 2011, Kura’s founding team — which included myself and UCSF Professor Kevan M. Shokat, Ph.D. — reached a deal to sell our therapeutics company Intellikine to Takeda Pharmaceuticals. It didn’t take long before we were discussing what would come next.
Kevan proposed an idea for a new company based on pioneering work he’d done in his academic lab on a small-molecule approach to drugging a troublesome cancer-causing protein known as KRAS G12C. This company became known as Araxes Pharma, named after the Araxes River that forms the international boundary between Azerbaijan and northwest Iran. After the Araxes River drains the south side of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, it joins with the Kura River before emptying into the Caspian Sea. Beyond this, he was drawn to “Araxes” because the river also goes by the name “Aras,” which is reminiscent of the RAS molecular pathway at the core of his UCSF research.
Along the way, we created an affiliated company, Wellspring Biosciences — representing the “headwaters” of innovation. (Wellspring is a subsidiary of Araxes Pharma.)
Then another idea blossomed: in-licensing an investigational drug called tipifarnib, a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV. At the time, tipifarnib was a phase 2-ready program that demonstrated encouraging activity in certain cancer patient populations. We believed it could achieve greater results if we could more precisely identify patients who would benefit. Aided by our strong relationship with Janssen’s senior management, our team took on tipifarnib as the foundation of a new company.
When it came time to name this company, we already had Araxes and Wellspring. Building on the river metaphor of the RAS pathway, we wanted a name that reflected tipifarnib’s ability to target cancer “downstream” of the KRAS protein. We turned to geography: After the Araxes River drains the south side of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, it joins with the Kura River, before emptying into the Caspian Sea.
Thus we chose the name “Kura” as a link to our past efforts to discover and develop drugs and as a metaphor for the central signaling pathways that Kura targets to stop cancer.