ORIC Pharmaceuticals Presents Rinzimetostat Data at ESMO Congress 2026

ORIC Pharmaceuticals presented preclinical and translational data on rinzimetostat at ESMO Congress 2026, showing the drug enhances sensitivity to androgen receptor inhibition in prostate cancer. Stock Titan reported the ePoster presentation on October 23, 2026.

What ORIC's ESMO ePoster Showed

ORIC Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage oncology company developing treatments that address mechanisms of therapeutic resistance, according to company records. The ePoster, numbered 1128eP in the Developmental Therapeutics session, covered rinzimetostat, an allosteric inhibitor of the polycomb repressive complex 2 via the EED subunit.

Preclinical results suggested potential advantages of targeting PRC2 via EED over EZH2. Prostate cancer cells that rapidly developed resistance to mevrometostat acquired a mutation in EZH2 against which rinzimetostat potency was maintained, and no emergence of rinzimetostat-resistant cells was observed. No hematologic tumorigenesis was observed in the rinzimetostat rat toxicology study, in contrast to rat tumorigenesis demonstrated with EZH2 inhibitor tazemetostat.

Rinzimetostat restored access to AR binding motifs and restricted accessibility at sites associated with lineage plasticity in preclinical prostate cancer models. It synergized with AR inhibition in preclinical prostate cancer studies, and KLK2 and STEAP1 luminal markers increased following rinzimetostat treatment.

Samples from patients with mCRPC treated with single-agent rinzimetostat showed biological changes consistent with the preclinical findings. Plasma cfDNA methylation profiling showed epigenetic shifts indicative of increased AR signaling after one treatment cycle in most patients assessed, and paired tumor biopsies showed increased levels of luminal and AR-associated markers PSMA and KLK2.

"These results strengthen the rationale for combining PRC2 inhibition with androgen receptor targeted therapies across castration-sensitive and castration-resistant prostate cancer by limiting tumor adaptability and enhancing sensitivity to AR inhibition," said Lori Friedman, PhD, chief scientific officer.

Rinzimetostat's Phase 3 Dose and Trial

According to akta.pro company records, ORIC selected 400mg once-daily rinzimetostat plus darolutamide as the recommended Phase 3 dose in March 2026 and announced plans to initiate the 600-patient Himalayas-1 registrational trial in post-abiraterone mCRPC across 20 or more countries in the first half of 2026. The same records show the company held $413 million in cash as of early 2026, sufficient to fund operations into the second half of 2028.

Earlier ORIC Prostate Cancer Steps

ORIC launched a global Phase 3 trial of rinzimetostat in September 2026, enrolling about 600 patients across 25 countries, Yahoo reported. In October 2026, ORIC Pharmaceuticals and Cancer Research UK announced an agreement to advance ORIC-259, a CIP2A-targeted mRNA degrader, into clinical development, Stock Titan reported.

Enozertinib Data Call on October 23

ORIC Pharmaceuticals will host a conference call and webcast on October 23, 2026, to review enozertinib clinical data from its Phase 1b trial in first-line NSCLC patients with EGFR atypical mutations, Stock Titan reported.