Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. Common Stock 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Justine, please go ahead. Good morning, welcome to Kymera Therapeutics quarterly update conference call.

Joining me today with prepared remarks are Nello Mainolfi, our Founder, President, and CEO, and Bruce Jacobs, our Chief Financial Officer. We'll also have brief comments from Jared Gollob and Terence Rooney, our new Chief Medical Officer, who will also join us for Q&A. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions from our covering analysts. To ensure we have time to hear from everyone, we will limit each analyst to one question. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties described in our most recent Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. Please note that any forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date, and we undertake no obligation to update them. I will now turn the call over to Nello.

Thank you, Justine. Good morning, everyone. Before we dive into the quarterly update, as we announced last week, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Jared as he prepares to retire, and thank him for his many contributions over the past eight years. Jared has been instrumental in helping build Kymera and has made a meaningful impact across virtually every aspect of the company. His leadership, dedication, and partnership have helped shape where we are today, and we're incredibly grateful for everything he's done. While we'll certainly miss him, he leaves the organization in a position of great strength. With Terence stepping into the role, I'm confident that we'll have a seamless transition and continue to build on the strong foundation Jared has helped create.

You'll hear from Terence later in the call, I'm very excited to have him join the team and believe his long and deep experience across all phases of immunology development and commercialization, along with his insights and capabilities, will be critical to helping advance our next phase of growth. On behalf of everybody at Kymera, thank you, Jared. We wish you nothing but the very best in this well-deserved next chapter. Before we get started, we wanted to give him the opportunity to share a few words.

Jared? Thank you, Nello. While it's certainly bittersweet to say goodbye, I have made the decision to retire after having spent 20 years in academic medicine, followed by 20 years in industry, including the last 8 years at Kymera.

This is obviously an exciting time for Kymera, and I cannot be prouder, not only of all that we have accomplished, but also of all that the company will accomplish in the future. I am happy to note that I'll be staying on as an advisor through year-end to help with the transition as needed. I am ultimately excited for this next chapter and for the opportunity to spend more time with my family. Before I go, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you.

It has been an incredible privilege to be part of this organization and to work alongside such talented, dedicated, and inspiring people. I have also enjoyed all the interactions I have had with all of the investors and analysts on the call today, which I will miss as well. Looking back, I'm filled with gratitude for everything we've accomplished. I have tremendous confidence in the future of Kymera and can't wait to see all that's still to come. It's been an absolute honor to be part of this journey.

Thank you. Thanks, Jared. Now, with that, let's turn to our quarterly update.

We enter today's call with strong momentum across the business, driven by progress in our lead programs, advancement of our broader pipeline, and continued execution against our long-term strategy. At Kymera, our ambition is not only just to develop new medicines, but to redefine what is possible for patients by changing treatment paradigms. We believe we have the ability, by leveraging not only targeted protein degradation, but also our broad small molecule capabilities, to fundamentally reshape how diseases are treated. Our focus remains firmly on translating the science into transformative oral medicines that can create meaningful impact for patients. Reflecting on our recent accomplishments, last quarter's highlights was undoubtedly the announcement that we completed enrollment in our phase IIb AD trial approximately 6 months ahead of schedule.

As a result, we now expect to report top-line data by year-end 2026 and to initiate phase III development around mid-2027, both approximately 6 months earlier than previously planned. We view the rapid enrollment as a reflection of many factors, including the compelling preclinical and phase Ib/a data generated to date. Appreciation and confidence from investigators and KOLs in a well-understood pathway. The incredible excitement from investigators and patients for the opportunity of a once-a-day oral therapy, as we have seen in other areas. Outstanding execution by our clinical trial operations and medical teams. We completed this trial well ahead of expectations, as I mentioned earlier. I would add that we did that while maintaining our strict focus on quality, which included many measures that we put in place, some of which could be perceived as burdensome to patients and sites.

This approach remained consistent throughout enrollment. In addition to the momentum around our STAT6 program, we continue to demonstrate that our platform can repeatedly generate differentiated investigational medicines against high-value targets, reinforcing our strategy of building a robust pipeline capable of driving high-impact patients, and in doing so, delivering long-term value. Our second wholly-owned program is also progressing in the clinic with the ongoing phase I study of KT-579, our oral IRF5 degrader. We believe IRF5 represents a highly compelling target in autoimmune diseases with the potential to address multiple high-value indications. We expect to report phase I healthy volunteer results in the fourth quarter of 2026, and to advance the program into its first proof of concept study in lupus patients soon thereafter. In addition, KT-485, our second-generation IRAK4 degrader partnered with Sanofi, recently entered phase I development, resulting in a $20 million milestone payment to Kymera.

The phase I is designed to evaluate KT-485 in both healthy volunteers and patients with hidradenitis suppurativa, and we look forward to its advancement under Sanofi's leadership. Last but not least, we look forward to providing updates as our CDK2 molecular glue, KT-200, partnered with Gilead, advanced towards an expected IND in clinical start next year. Taken together, our progress across all of these programs highlight both the power of our discovery and development capabilities and our ability to consistently translate into potentially transformative medicines for patients and meaningful value creation for shareholders. Turning more specifically now to KT-621. As we prepare for the upcoming readout later this year, I wanted to quickly refresh you all on the details of the trial and then touch on how we view the opportunity for KT-621. As a reminder, the study is evaluating three doses of KT-621 compared to placebo.

The primary endpoint is percent change from baseline in EASI score in week 16. Key secondary endpoints include EASI-50, EASI-75, IGA at one, and Pruritus NRS. When we report top-line results later this year, these, along with safety, are among the key endpoints we expect to share. As we think about the upcoming clinical readouts, our overarching goal is very clear. We're developing KT-621 to deliver on what we hear patients want, an active, safe oral therapy in diseases like AD, asthma, EoE, COPD, and others that lack such an option. This is not only true in these type 2 indications, but also more broadly. There is an overwhelming demand for oral pills that can help manage debilitating chronic diseases. It comes down to clear preference among patients and physicians for treatments that are better suited to fit their lives.