Piper Sandler has maintained its Overweight rating on Kronos Bio Inc (NASDAQ: KRON) with a steady price target of $6.00.
The firm's endorsement comes as Kronos Bio advances its drug development pipeline, including progress on its KB-7898 compound for Sjögren's disease.
Kronos Bio has selected KB-7898 as its second p300 KAT inhibitor aimed at treating Sjögren's disease.
The company is poised to reveal preclinical data that suggests KB-7898 can decrease auto-antibodies and inflammatory cytokine signatures, which are key factors in autoimmune diseases. This data will be presented at the ACR conference on November 18th.
The company is also gearing up to begin IND-enabling studies for KB-7898 in the fourth quarter of 2024. The potential of KB-7898 extends beyond Sjögren's disease, as Kronos Bio anticipates its application in other autoimmune disorders.
Additionally, Kronos Bio is preparing to launch a Phase I study for another drug, KB-9558, targeted at relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, with the study expected to start in the first half of 2025.
In other developments, Kronos Bio is actively enrolling patients for an ovarian cancer expansion cohort to test istisociclib at a dosage of 80mg on a schedule of four days followed by three days off. More detailed results from this study are anticipated to be available in the first half of 2025.
The financial stability of Kronos Bio is underscored by its reported cash reserves of $136.6 million as of the second quarter of 2024. These funds are projected to support the company's operations well into the second half of 2026, providing a solid foundation for its ongoing research and development activities.
In other recent news, Kronos Bio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has nominated its development candidate KB-7898 for the treatment of Sjögren’s disease. This autoimmune disorder currently lacks treatments that target its root cause, and the company plans to commence Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies in the fourth quarter of 2024. The orally available p300 lysine acetyltransferase (KAT) inhibitor, KB-7898, has shown preclinical efficacy in reducing antibody and cytokine production, potentially influencing the disease's pathology.
The role of p300 in inflammatory conditions, as indicated by preclinical data, will be presented at the ACR Convergence 2024. These findings suggest a promising therapeutic avenue for conditions like Sjögren’s disease, which affects millions in the U.S. and can significantly impact the quality of life.
In addition to Sjögren’s disease, Kronos Bio is also considering the application of KB-7898 for other autoimmune diseases in the future. The company's proprietary discovery engine has identified KB-7898 as a potential treatment option, and its pipeline also includes drug candidates for cancer treatments, such as Istisociclib (KB-0742) in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for ovarian cancer.
InvestingPro Insights
Kronos Bio's financial landscape, as revealed by InvestingPro data, offers additional context to the company's drug development efforts. With a market capitalization of $59.69 million, Kronos Bio is currently operating at a loss, reflected in its negative P/E ratio of -0.67 for the last twelve months as of Q2 2024. This aligns with the InvestingPro Tip indicating that analysts do not anticipate the company to be profitable this year.
Despite the current lack of profitability, Kronos Bio has shown significant revenue growth, with a 172.76% increase in the last twelve months as of Q2 2024. This substantial growth may be attributed to the company's advancing drug pipeline, including the promising KB-7898 for Sjögren's disease and other autoimmune disorders.
An InvestingPro Tip highlights that Kronos Bio holds more cash than debt on its balance sheet, which corroborates the article's mention of the company's $136.6 million cash reserves. This financial position supports the company's projected operations into the second half of 2026, providing a runway for its ongoing clinical trials and research initiatives.
For investors seeking a more comprehensive analysis, InvestingPro offers 5 additional tips for Kronos Bio, providing deeper insights into the company's financial health and market position.
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