Arbutus plans to lay off 40% of its staff after ending one of three ongoing midstage hepatitis B trials.
The decision to cut the study — testing lead asset imdusiran plus a nucleos(t)ide analogue in combination with AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi — was made in part after assessing “the projected availability of clinical data from this trial.”
The biotech said Thursday that it elected to funnel resources toward two other Phase 2 trials testing imdusiran in addition to a runner-up, Phase 1 candidate, AB-101.
The layoffs are mostly affecting discovery work and general administrative functions, Arbutus says, spurring a one-time restructuring charge between $3 million to $4 million. It’s the second round of cuts in less than a year after 24% of employees were let go in November 2023. At the end of December last year, the company had 73 full-time staffers.
“To ensure we have the resources to conduct such a program, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue our HBV research efforts and reduce our headcount leading to a projected cash runway into the fourth quarter of 2026,” interim president and CEO Michael McElhaugh said in a statement.
Arbutus reported $148.5 million as of the end of June to keep advancing imdusiran, with an expected 2024 cash burn of $63 million to $67 million.
The decision follows encouraging data from one of the now-prioritized trials presented at the European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting in June.
Arbutus disclosed then that imdusiran on top of nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy and standard-of-care interferon for 24 weeks brought viral surface antigen levels down to undetectable levels for a third of patients by the end of treatment. The four patients that reached undetectable levels maintained them through 24 weeks post-full treatment.
Analysts at Chardan called imdusiran a “partnerable asset” after the data were unveiled.