Mural Oncology (MURA) (~$40-45MM market capitalization, trading has been highly volatile today) is a former November 2023 spinoff of Alkermes (ALKS), in late March the company announced they were not continuing with a Phase 3 trial of nemvaleukin in combination with Merck’s Keytruda for the treatment of ovarian cancer as it didn’t significantly improve overall survival rates. The stock was already trading below cash and crashed further, but I sucked my thumb on buying it. MURA was still pursuing a Phase 2 trial of nemvaleukin for the treatment of melanoma and was only projecting their cash runway to last into the first quarter of 2026.
Today, the company announced after reviewing the melanoma Phase 2 data, they were discontinuing all development of nemvaleukin, conducting a 90% workforce reduction and pursuing strategic alternatives. Shares are up over 100%, but still at a reasonable discount to my estimated net liquidation value.
MURA is trading wildly today, it is not the normal setup where a drug disappoints in the clinic and science based biotechnology investors exit quickly, here they’ve long given up on MURA and the discontinuation of development is a welcomed surprise.
One interesting tidbit that a reader found, in the press release, MURA includes:
Mural plans to explore potential strategic alternatives including, but not limited to, an offer for or other acquisition of the company, merger, business combination, or other transaction.
This one reads less as a pursuit of a reverse merger and possibly more of an invitation for a Tang-style cash buyout as a substitute for a liquidation? As others in the market have commented, seems like we’re seeing some momentum build behind these broken biotechs doing the right thing and returning cash to shareholders, hopefully its a trend that continues here too.
Disclosure: I own shares of MURA
