Mission Therapeutics (“Mission” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biotech developing first-in-class therapeutics targeting mitophagy, today announces that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its lead asset MTX652, allowing Mission to proceed with its planned Phase II clinical trial in the US.

Up to 160 adults with increased risk for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery are planned to be recruited for the trial, which will take place at multiple sites in North America and Europe. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is expected to begin early next year and is intended to show that MTX652 protects this high-risk group of patients from AKI by assessing standard markers of renal function and renal injury over time.

Dr Anker Lundemose, Chief Executive Officer of Mission Therapeutics, said: “The FDA’s approval of our Phase II clinical study for our lead asset MTX652 marks a major milestone for Mission. We now have two USP30 inhibitors advancing through clinical trials, MTX652 for acute kidney injury and MTX325 for Parkinson’s Disease, validating our unique approach and the breadth of our assets.“

Dr Suhail Nurbhai, Chief Medical Officer of Mission Therapeutics, said: “Recent reports suggest that up to 50% of high-risk patients suffer acute kidney injury following heart surgery[i] [ii]. There are no approved drug treatments and the immediate and longer-term consequences can be very serious, including continued decline of renal function and/or the requirement for renal replacement therapy. We believe MTX562 has the potential to alleviate these outcomes and to meet this serious and important unmet medical need. We are delighted to have received this approval and look forward to starting this trial in 2024.“

Dr Paul Thompson, Chief Scientific Officer of Mission Therapeutics, commented: “In preclinical experiments, MTX652 demonstrated significant protective effects in multiple models of kidney injury, and this breadth of effect is very encouraging in indicating potential clinical benefit. We are very pleased with this strong preclinical foundation, which supports our progress into clinical efficacy trials.”

The FDA’s decision follows completion of a Phase I First Time in Human (FTIH) study of MTX652 earlier in 2023, in which over 80 healthy volunteers received MTX652. The trial successfully demonstrated MTX652 was safe and well tolerated up to a single dose of 200mg a day and multiple doses of 100mg daily for 14 days, with an excellent pharmacokinetic profile.