Servier joins the menin club

The menin inhibitor battle between Kura/Kyowa Kirin's ziftomenib and Syndax's Revuforj, already facing a challenge from Johnson & Johnson's bleximenib, now has a new name on the scene. At least that's the hope of Servier, which on Friday acquired rights to BN104, a mid-stage menin inhibitor originated by China's BioNova Pharmaceuticals. Servier claims that BN104 has best-in-class potential, but so far the only data to go on are from an uncontrolled trial in a handful of relapsed/refractory AML patients where CR/CRh rates were 61% for a KMT2A rearranged subgroup and 40% in subjects with NPM1 mutation, with no grade 3 or higher QTc prolongation or differentiation syndrome. BN104's only other clinical trial is investigator-sponsored. Servier says the deal comprises up-front cash plus future earnouts, but hasn't revealed any numbers, suggesting that its initial outlay is modest. Apart from the above four menin inhibitors OncologyPipeline lists just three others in clinical trials: Sumitomo's enzomenib, HutchMed's HMPL-506 and Eilean's balamenib. The next catalyst for this space are full results from ziftomenib's Komet-001 study, toplined positive in February and due to be unveiled at ASCO.

Clinical trials of BN104

Note: *investigator-sponsored trial. Source: OncologyPipeline.