Tome Biosciences, a high-profile gene editing startup, will terminate nearly its entire workforce during the first two weeks of November.
It disclosed plans to lay off 131 people in a Massachusetts filing late Friday afternoon.
The company, which emerged from stealth in December with $213 million, was unable to raise a new round of funding needed to wrap up the preclinical studies ahead of a clinical trial, CEO Rahul Kakkar told Endpoints News.
On Thursday, Kakkar said the company employed just over 130 people and insisted that layoffs were not announced during the company’s all-staff meeting earlier this week. He also denied a detail reported by STAT News indicating that the company had until Nov. 1 to find a buyer or shut down.
Kakkar declined to comment about the layoffs on Friday. He wouldn’t confirm if they will affect all employees or if a small number of executives would remain to close a deal with a potential acquirer. Kakkar told Endpoints that Tome is in discussions with at least three larger companies interested in its technology, lead programs, or both.
Earlier this week, the company told its employees that it would cease lab work and focus on finding an acquirer or partner to continue development of its gene editing technology. In the remaining weeks, Kakkar said his staff could prepare data for a potential regulatory package and write scientific publications.
The startup was developing a new method to precisely insert large swathes of genetic code, or even whole genes, into cells. The approach promised to treat nearly any genetic disease and create super-powered cell therapies. But despite promising data in monkeys, the company was unable to raise a Series C financing round or find a partner to co-develop its lead programs, Kakkar said.
Tome was the most richly-backed startup wholly dedicated to this new gene insertion field. Competitors like Tessera Therapeutics and Prime Medicine are also working on their own approaches for gene insertion.