IDEAYA Biosciences Announces Acquisition of Proprietary INQUIRE™ Chemical Library to Enhance Synthetic Lethality Drug Discovery Platform

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:IDYA), a synthetic lethality focused precision medicine oncology company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics, reported the acquisition of its INQUIRE™ Chemical Library to enhance the company's synthetic lethality drug discovery platform.    

IDEAYA's INQUIRE Chemical Library is a proprietary, expert-curated small-molecule library of over 200,000 chemical compounds.  The collection includes compounds selected for lead-like properties and molecular diversity, including novel sp3 enriched chemotypes, a-helix and b-sheet mimetics and privileged structures. IDEAYA believes this will enhance its hit discovery capabilities across a broad range of novel synthetic lethality targets and historically difficult-to-drug target classes, such as helicases and endonucleases. 

"The INQUIRE Chemical Library represents another important building block in our synthetic lethality drug discovery platform, where we have continued to expand IDEAYA's drug discovery capabilities, including in structural biology, structure-based drug design, and protein degrader chemistry.  We have developed substantial know-how in synthetic lethality drug discovery, and we believe this proprietary chemical library enhances our existing hit-finding capabilities to discover novel chemical entities which are active and selective against novel synthetic lethality targets," said Michael White, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of IDEAYA Biosciences.

IDEAYA is a leading synthetic lethality focused biotechnology company with capabilities for identifying and validating synthetic lethality targets and biomarkers.  The company applies drug discovery capabilities against validated synthetic lethality targets which could be impactful to patients with a specific patient selection biomarker.  IDEAYA has integrated multiple drug discovery technologies and capabilities, including hit discovery, structural biology, computational chemistry, and analytical chemistry, among other core functional expertise. 

IDEAYA has advanced multiple potential first-in-class Synthetic Lethality programs through its internal drug discovery platform, including IDE397, a Phase 1 MAT2A inhibitor, PARG, Pol Theta, and Werner Helicase.  IDEAYA has achieved significant drug discovery milestones across each of these programs, including the identification of novel chemical matter, resolving key co-crystal structures that enable structure-based lead optimization, and the discovery of multiple potential first-in-class and best-in-class development candidates.  IDEAYA has a broad next generation synthetic lethality portfolio, including two undisclosed programs in lead optimization that are structurally enabled, a first-in-class target undergoing hit identification, and multiple additional novel targets undergoing target and biomarker validation.

About IDEAYA Biosciences

IDEAYA is a synthetic lethality focused precision medicine oncology company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using molecular diagnostics.  IDEAYAs approach integrates capabilities in identifying and validating translational biomarkers with drug discovery to select patient populations most likely to benefit from its targeted therapies.  IDEAYA is applying its research and drug discovery capabilities to synthetic lethality – which represents an emerging class of precision medicine targets.   

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements related to (i) the enhancement of IDEAYA's hit discovery capabilities and (ii) the potential first-in-class nature of its programs. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause IDEAYA's preclinical and clinical development programs, future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainties inherent in the drug development process, including IDEAYA's programs' early stage of development, the process of designing and conducting preclinical and clinical trials, the regulatory approval processes, the timing of regulatory filings, the challenges associated with manufacturing drug products, IDEAYA's ability to successfully establish, protect and defend its intellectual property, the effects on IDEAYA's business of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and other matters that could affect the sufficiency of existing cash to fund operations. IDEAYA undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of IDEAYA in general, see IDEAYA's recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 15, 2021 and any current and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc.