STORM Therapeutics Ltd. (STORM), a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel small molecule therapies targeting RNA modifying enzymes (RMEs) for oncology and other diseases, will be presenting the discovery of its lead clinical candidate, STC-15, which is an orally bioavailable and highly selective METTL3 inhibitor, at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2023 Conference, in San Francisco, California on the 13-17 August 2023.
The presentation entitled “Discovery of STC-15, an orally bioavailable, highly selective METTL3 inhibitor for the treatment of AML and solid tumours: The first molecule specifically targeting an RNA methyltransferase enzyme to enter clinical development” will detail the Company’s discovery efforts in optimising novel chemistries and the identification of STC-15 for evaluation in clinical studies. Details of the ongoing first-in-human clinical trial in patients with solid tumours can be found on clinicaltrials.gov under the identifier NCT05584111.
Beth Thomas, Vice President Medicinal Chemistry of STORM Therapeutics, said, “The targeting of RNA modifying enzymes is an unexplored and exciting field of drug discovery. We are pleased to present the discovery story of a first-in-class and first-to-clinic METTL3 inhibitor, STC-15, and thank our collaborator Evotec SE, who have been instrumental in supporting us in this drug discovery process. While post-transcriptional RNA modifications have been known for over 30 years, their regulation and functional consequences have only recently begun to emerge. Within this presentation we will describe the need for novel approaches in this new target space and present our efforts to overcome these challenges.”
STORM has recently received a notice of allowance for a US patent protecting STC-15 and continues to prosecute patents covering STC-15 and wider METTL3 inhibitor chemistries in a broad range of territories.
Oliver Rausch, Chief Scientific Officer of STORM Therapeutics, added, “STORM has shown in preclinical models that inhibition of METTL3 blocks tumour growth and induces tumour regression through activation of an anti-tumour immune response. Combination with immune-checkpoint-blockade further enhances these effects and results in induction of long-lasting anti-tumour immunity. These data provide support for testing of STC-15 as a therapeutic in a wide range of tumour types, and illustrate the potential for new therapeutics targeting RNA modifications.”