Oric Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ORIC)

ORIC Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on overcoming resistance in cancer. Its founders and management team have a long history of identifying and characterizing resistance mechanisms in oncology, with prior experience at Ignyta, Medivation, Aragon and Genentech. The company's integrated discovery and development team is advancing clinical and discovery stage therapies designed to counter innate, acquired and bypass resistance, drawing on expertise in hormone-dependent cancers, precision oncology and key tumor dependencies. It uses biomarkers to show target engagement and plans to use them for patient selection in its trials.

The clinical pipeline has three candidates. ORIC-533 is an orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of CD73, a node in the adenosine pathway. It is in a Phase 1b single-agent trial in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, with an FDA IND clearance in 2021 and a Canadian CTA clearance in the first quarter of 2023. ORIC-114 is a brain penetrant, orally bioavailable, irreversible EGFR and HER2 inhibitor with high potency against exon 20 insertion mutations. It is in a Phase 1b trial in advanced solid tumors with EGFR or HER2 exon 20 alterations or HER2 amplifications, including patients with CNS metastases, and it was licensed from Voronoi in October 2020. ORIC-944 is an allosteric inhibitor of PRC2 via the EED subunit, licensed from Mirati in August 2020. It is in a Phase 1b trial in advanced prostate cancer. Initial Phase 1b data from all three programs are expected in the second half of 2023. The company also has discovery stage programs, including a preclinical program on PLK4 inhibition for TRIM37-amplified breast cancers and other solid tumors, and mostly uses small molecule approaches against oncogenic drivers in solid tumors such as prostate, breast and lung cancer.

ORIC has no approved products and targets cancer patients whose tumors resist or relapse after existing treatments. The indications include multiple myeloma, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, other solid tumors and advanced prostate cancer. It owns or licenses full worldwide rights to its programs, except that for ORIC-114 it holds exclusive rights outside China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It has a clinical development collaboration with Pfizer for ORIC-533. It intends to commercialize its candidates in key markets either alone or with partners.

The company runs internal capabilities in medicinal chemistry, structure-based design, biology, translational medicine, computational biology, biomarker development, CMC, clinical development and operations, pharmacovigilance, regulatory and quality. It had 86 full-time employees as of December 31, 2022. It expands its portfolio through internal discovery and in-licensing, and it has filed or cleared INDs with the FDA and CTAs in South Korea and Canada for its candidates. The text does not describe its suppliers, manufacturing arrangements, competitors or headquarters in detail, though it notes that several companies are developing anti-CD73 antibodies and EZH2 inhibitors.