SNDX - Why Kura Oncology Is Skyrocketing Today
Shares of Kura Oncology (NASDAQ: KURA) -- a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on developing cancer treatments -- were up by 42.6% as of 1:49 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.
The company did not report any news, but its stock is probably riding the wave of Syndax Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNDX), another clinical-stage drugmaker whose shares are up by more than 50% as a result of positive data from a phase 1 clinical trial.
One of Syndax's pipeline candidates is SNDX-5613, a potential treatment for leukemia. SNDX-5613 works by preventing the interaction between two proteins called menin and MLL, which play a central role in the growth of certain types of leukemia cells. Syndax released data from a phase 1 clinical trial for SNDX-5613 on Monday, saying that the data provided "the first clinical evidence that disrupting the interaction between menin and MLL1 with our potent and selective inhibitor, SNDX-5613, can induce response in patients with genetically defined acute leukemias."