Kazia Therapeutics Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:KZIA) shares rose 2.5% in premarket trading Friday following the company's disclosure of preclinical findings for NDL2, a candidate protein degrader targeting nuclear PD-L1.
The Sydney-based oncology developer says NDL2 is engineered to eliminate nuclear PD-L1, which the company identified as a previously unrecognized driver of immunotherapy resistance and metastatic progression. Kazia noted that this intracellular form of PD-L1 is not reached by currently approved PD-1/PD-L1 antibody therapies.
In preclinical models of triple-negative breast cancer, Kazia reported that NDL2 reduced primary tumor volume by 49% when used as monotherapy. The effect increased to a 73% reduction when NDL2 was combined with an anti-PD-1 agent. The company also stated that the combined regimen produced a 50% reduction in lung metastases in these models.
"The pharmaceutical industry is clearly signalling that targeted protein degradation represents a transformational opportunity in oncology," said Dr. John Friend, CEO of Kazia Therapeutics. "What differentiates NDL2 is that we are applying protein degradation to PD-L1 as one of the most clinically validated targets in cancer, while addressing a resistance mechanism not reached by existing therapies."
Kazia attributed the experimental data to work carried out by Professor Sudha Rao and her team at QIMR Berghofer. According to the company, those investigators showed that nuclear PD-L1 promotes aggressive cancer traits, including epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, cancer stem-like phenotypes, and immune evasion.
The release stated that NDL2 displayed a favorable preclinical safety profile with no observed toxicity. Kazia said it is advancing IND-enabling studies and has plans to initiate first-in-human clinical trials in 2027, subject to regulatory review.
The company also announced an intention to present additional data at an oncology-focused scientific meeting in the second quarter of 2026, and it said further program updates are expected in the first quarter of 2026.
The information released by Kazia covers preclinical research findings, safety observations from those studies, planned development milestones, and expected public disclosures of additional data. The company provided specific efficacy figures from the triple-negative breast cancer models and outlined next steps toward clinical testing.