AbbVie-partnered Mission Therapeutics is tweaking its trajectory, closing a preclinical laboratory in the U.K. to focus on its two clinical candidates.
Mission was built on the work of Steve Jackson, the University of Cambridge professor perhaps best known for discovering Lynparza. The scientific foundations positioned the biotech to attempt to fix mitochondrial dysfunction by targeting deubiquitylating enzymes—and helped it land a partnership with AbbVie and raise money from Pfizer, Roche and others.
The enzymes are implicated in a range of diseases, but Mission is narrowing its focus. A spokesperson for Mission said the biotech is closing its preclinical laboratory operations in Cambridge, confirming news first reported by Endpoints. The action will enable Mission to focus on MTX325 and MTX652.
Mission began giving MTX325 to healthy volunteers in a phase 1 trial in March. IP Group, an investor in the biotech, said (PDF) in September that Mission had completed the single ascending dose stage of the trial. That part of the study showed the drug candidate “has a good safety profile and can penetrate the central nervous system,” IP Group said.
The investor expected Mission to start a phase 1b in Parkinson’s disease patients in early 2025. Mission’s study protocol supports dosing of healthy volunteers and patients with mild to moderate Parkinson’s. The trial has a targeted end date of May 2026.
That timeline suggests Mission has the money to deliver data from the study. Mission’s spokesperson said the company’s cash runway extends “well into 2026.” The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Parkinson’s UK committed $5.2 million to support 28-day MTX325 dosing in early-stage Parkinson’s patients last year.
Mission last disclosed a financing in March 2024, when it raised 25.2 million pounds sterling ($31.7 million) to advance MTX325 and MTX652 deeper into the clinic. The biotech received FDA clearance to run a phase 2 trial of MTX652 in adults with increased risk for acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery at the end of 2023. Mission completed a phase 1 trial of MTX652 in healthy volunteers earlier in 2023.