A year after the failure of an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis candidate sent Galecto on a search for salvation, the Boston-based biotech has decided to go all-in on oncology and liver disease—including picking up a preclinical leukemia asset and culling a bone cancer drug.
Galecto is acquiring the global rights to BRM-1420, a dual ENL-YEATS and FLT3 inhibitor, from Bridge Medicines. The licensing deal will see Bridge issued with two tranches of Galecto’s shares that together will compromise almost 18% of Galecto’s outstanding common stock.
Bridge’s CEO Matthew Kronmiller will also join Galecto’s management team as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Chief Business Officer.
BRM-1420 is designed to inhibit multiple genetic subsets of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Having assessed the preclinical data, Galecto believes BRM-1420 could be used in combination with approved AML treatments like Bristol Myers Squibb's chemotherapy Vidaza, AbbVie’s BCL-2 inhibitor Venclexta and the chemotherapy cytarabine, as well as the menin inhibitors being developed as new potential treatments for the cancer.
Galecto plans to request permission in late 2025 or early 2026 to launch a clinical trial of BRM-1420 in the U.S. Bridge, which was co-founded by Japanese pharma Takeda, first licensed BRM-1420 from The Rockefeller University, one of the institutions that it is partnered with.
Galecto’s search for a new strategic vision last year was prompted by the phase 2 failure of the company’s lead inhaled treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which led the biotech to lay off 70% of its workforce. Now, the company has confirmed that its sole focus will be oncology and liver disease.
The biotech’s most advanced candidate in this space had been GB2064, a LOXL-2 inhibitor for the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis. Galecto posted phase 2 data in December 2023 that the company claimed showed GB2064’s disease-modifying potential. But of the 18 patients in the trial, 10 discontinued treatment because of an adverse event or disease progress and Galecto said in today’s release that it has decided not to take GB2064 forward.
It means that the biotech’s pipeline is now led by GB1211, a galectin-3 inhibitor being assessed for both cancer and severe liver cirrhosis. The drug is currently being evaluated in a phase 2 trial in combination with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma or recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
“Our strategic review process concluded that our best opportunity for building value and changing the lives for patients with severe diseases was to focus on our existing clinical stage compound GB1211 and increase our chance for success by acquiring complementary assets,” Galecto CEO Hans Schambye explained in an Oct. 7 release.
“The addition of BRM-1420 represents a significant advancement in our mission to develop and deliver breakthrough treatments for oncology and liver conditions,” Schambye added. “We are particularly optimistic about BRM-1420's potential to address challenging genetic subsets of AML and its observed synergistic effects with standard-of-care therapies and menin inhibitors.”