Boulder’s OnKure goes public with merger; key drug trial underway

BOULDER — OnKure Inc., a Boulder precision oncology company, and California-based Reneo Pharmaceuticals Inc. have completed a merger that takes OnKure public and injects $65 million into the company as it moves through a key trial for its leading breast cancer drug candidate. 

The combined company, which began trading Monday on the Nasdaq exchange under the “OKUR” ticker symbol, is called OnKure Therapeutics and is focused on developing OnKure’s existing drug pipeline, highlighted by OKI-219, a selective PI3K alpha H1047R inhibitor for the treatment of certain types of breast cancer that began clinical trials in February. 

“Concurrent with the closing of the merger, the company completed a $65 million private placement with a group of new and existing investors,” OnKure said in a disclosure late last week. “… Following the transactions, OnKure is expected to have a cash runway through multiple clinical readouts and into Q4-2026.”

OnKure, headquartered at 6707 Winchester Circle in the Gunbarrel neighborhood of northeast Boulder, raised $3.26 million in a Series A-1 investment in 2020, $55 million in a round of Series B fundraising in 2021 and a $54 million Series C round last year. 

The company now has cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of about $139 million.

OnKure expects to release early clinical data for OKI-219 late this year. 

“We are ecstatic to finalize this merger, and move to accelerate the development of our mutant-specific PI3Kα inhibitor portfolio. Combined with our unique expertise in PI3K-mutated cancers, we aim to fully target and exploit the vulnerabilities of this oncogenic menace for the benefit of patients suffering needlessly,” OnKure CEO Nicholas Saccomano said in a prepared statement.

Joining Saccomano on the combined company’s C-suire are chief medical officer Dr. Samuel Agresta, chief scientific officer Dylan Hartley and chief financial officer Jason Leverone.

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