Novartis and Mirati partner on KRas inhibitor

Drug companies have long considered KRas, a protein implicated in a large number of cancers, to be undruggable. But that’s starting to change as firms like Amgen, Mirati Therapeutics, and Revolution Medicines line up with new compounds that inhibit a specific mutant form of the protein called KRas G12C. In a nonexclusive partnership with Novartis, Mirati will test its KRas inhibitor in combination with Novartis’s experimental inhibitor of another protein, called SHP2, which is involved in the Ras pathway in cells. Separately, Revolution is developing its own inhibitors of KRas G12C and SHP2.