Mural Oncology (MURA) (~$40-45MM market capitalization, buying and selling has been extremely risky right now) is a former November 2023 spinoff of Alkermes (ALKS), in late March the corporate introduced they have been not persevering with with a Section 3 trial of nemvaleukin together with Merck’s Keytruda for the therapy of ovarian most cancers because it did not considerably enhance general survival charges. The inventory was already buying and selling beneath money and crashed additional, however I sucked my thumb on shopping for it. MURA was nonetheless pursuing a Section 2 trial of nemvaleukin for the therapy of melanoma and was solely projecting their money runway to final into the primary quarter of 2026.
Right now, the corporate introduced after reviewing the melanoma Section 2 information, they have been discontinuing all improvement of nemvaleukin, conducting a 90% workforce discount and pursuing strategic alternate options. Shares are up over 100%, however nonetheless at an affordable low cost to my estimated web liquidation worth.
MURA is buying and selling wildly right now, it’s not the traditional setup the place a drug disappoints within the clinic and science based mostly biotechnology buyers exit shortly, right here they’ve lengthy given up on MURA and the discontinuation of improvement is a welcomed shock.
One attention-grabbing tidbit {that a} reader discovered, within the press launch, MURA contains:
Mural plans to discover potential strategic alternate options together with, however not restricted to, a suggestion for or different acquisition of the corporate, merger, enterprise mixture, or different transaction.
This one reads much less as a pursuit of a reverse merger and probably extra of an invite for a Tang-style money buyout as an alternative choice to a liquidation? As others available in the market have commented, looks as if we’re seeing some momentum construct behind these damaged biotechs doing the proper factor and returning money to shareholders, hopefully its a development that continues right here too.
Disclosure: I personal shares of MURA