Atreca, Inc.

Following the restructuring news, Shattuck’s stock was down by 44.99% at market close on 1 October, compared to market close on the previous day. Shutterstock: paper cut design / Shutterstock. Shattuck Labs has dropped by nearly 45% after it announced plans to reduce its headcount and discontinue its lead cancer therapy programme, SL-172154. The restructuring decision was made after interim data from a Phase Ib trial (NCT05275439) showed a lack of a definitive overall survival (OS) benefit in patients receiving SL-172154. The company added that the ‘modest’ improvements in the OS seen in Phase I would likely erode in larger late-stage studies. Following the announcement, Shattuck’s stock was down by 44.99% at market close on 1 October, compared to market close on the previous day. The company’s market cap currently stands at $81.6m. SL-172154 is a cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47) inhibitors, which were investigated as a treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). In February, Shattuck licensed out multiple potential drug candidates, including SL-172154, to Ono Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth more than $227m. As part of the restructuring, the companies have mutually terminated the agreement and Shattuck is “no longer required to satisfy any remaining performance obligations and will not receive any future research activity reimbursements or upfront, milestone, or royalty payments from Ono”. See Also: ImmunoPrecise and Biotheus partner on bispecific antibodies to treat cancer Novaliq and Laboratoires Théa announce EC approval for dry eye disease therapy The cost-saving measures also cull 40% of the workforce by the end of the year and will cost between $1.5m and $1.75m. Shattuck reported cash reserves of $105.3m as of 30 June, as per the latest SEC filing by the company. The company plans to funnel its remaining resources into developing its antibody therapy, SL-325. The DR3 antagonist acts by modulating adaptive immunity, as DR3 is expressed on the cell surface of various immune cells. Shattuck is developing SL-325 as a treatment for inflammatory autoimmune diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The company plans to file an investigational new drug application (IND) for SL-325 in Q3 2025. Shattuck noted that it has sufficient funds to finance beyond its planned Phase I clinical trial of SL-325 and into 2027. Following the recent round of lay-offs, Shattuck joins the list of pharmaceutical companies, including Atreca , Candel Therapeutics , Cidara Therapeutics , Kinnate Bio , and NexImmune , which have cut their workforces to reallocate funds into their clinical development pipelines in the last few months.

Biotech investment firm Samsara BioCapital has added three new venture partners in recent months to expand its network, support first-time CEOs in its portfolio and guide more companies by way of board seats. One of the venture partners also has government policy experience, giving the California firm an in-house expert to advise on some of the biggest legislative forces in drug development today, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the ongoing Biosecure bill. The eight-year-old firm has added former Chinook Therapeutics CEO Eric Dobmeier, ex-Atreca CEO John Orwin and previous Alnylam public policy and government relations leader Alan Eisenberg. Samsara now has 14 venture partners, founder and managing partner Srini Akkaraju told Endpoints News in an interview. The team’s expansion comes as Samsara’s portfolio companies have hit some key milestones in recent months, including multiple megarounds, EyeBio’s up to $3 billion exit to Merck , OnKure’s reverse merger with Reneo Pharmaceuticals, IPO planning at Upstream Bio and a Nasdaq listing for Alumis . Akkaraju is quite familiar with Dobmeier and Orwin by way of Seagen. Akkaraju served on the antibody-drug conjugate pioneer’s board for 17 years until 2020, during which Orwin was also a board member. Dobmeier had risen to the role of chief operating officer at the Seattle biotech before departing to become an executive at Silverback Therapeutics and then Chinook, which he oversaw until its $3.2 billion exit to Novartis last year. The Samsara founder said biotech is innovating at a faster clip than ever before, and the deal flow far exceeds the levels he saw in the early days of his investing career two decades ago. That calls for experienced veterans to help guide nascent companies. “The reality is the science and the innovation and the ideas, there’s more of them than experienced CEOs to run these [biotechs],” Akkaraju said. “But everybody has to be a first-time something, and first-time CEOs are always going to be there, and they’re an important part of our ecosystem. I personally think people like Eric and John are phenomenal to help these first-time CEOs do their job as well as they possibly can and grow a little bit faster into it.” Orwin was already chair of Samsara portfolio company Cargo Therapeutics. He’s also on the boards of Travere Therapeutics, AnaptysBio and Nested Therapeutics. Meanwhile, Eisenberg had spent about a decade at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization before working on government relations for Celgene and then Alnylam. “We’ve all been talking about Biosecure, we’ve been talking about the IRA for the last couple of years and the impact that will have and changes to Medicare Part D, etc. We read about it, we see it, and we talk to people about it. We get a little bit of, I’d say, a rudimentary understanding,” Akkaraju said. “Then, Alan’s come in and provided us a much greater level of understanding of this.” Investors could rely on outside experts and call them up when they need counsel on matters related to government policy, IRA implications and the like. But Akkaraju said he’d “rather have that person at the table all the time.” Akkaraju noted the trio of new team members — who are part-time — is not a sign that Samsara will ramp up the number of investments it makes. “It certainly has an impact on deal flow because all of these guys have great networks out there that will bring in opportunities,” Akkaraju said, but “it’s all about doing as good of a job as we possibly can in making a decision to do a deal and managing the investment and working with the portfolio company.”

Cidara reacquired the rights to the therapy from J&J for $85m in April. Image credit: gguy / Shutterstock. Cidara Therapeutics is axing nearly a third of its workforce to find funds to continue advancing clinical development of its reacquired flu candidate. The US-based biotech plans to lay off approximately 30% of its workforce, amounting to 20 positions, as per the company’s recent SEC filing. The reduction is expected to cost the company $1.2m in severance and benefit payments and will conclude by 1 November 2024. Cidara plans to focus its resources on advancing its influenza prevention therapy, CD388. The company also announced it plans to start a Phase IIb trial of CD388 for the prevention of influenza A and B in Q3 this year during the Northern Hemisphere’s flu season. After originally selling the rights to the drug to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in 2021, the company reacquired the rights to the therapy for $85m in April after the pharma giant announced plans to deprioritise the development of the drug. Despite Cidara now being responsible for all development and marketing costs for CD388, J&J is eligible to receive additional milestone-based payments. CD388 received fast track designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2023. The drug has been evaluated in two Phase I studies (NCT05285137 and NCT05619536) and one Phase IIa (NCT05523089) trial. See Also: Bavarian Nordic promises two million mpox vaccines for Africa by end of 2024 IBA venture PanTera gains €134m in funding to scale up actinium-225 production In the Phase IIa data, despite a numerical decrease in influenza virus replication after a single dose of CD388, the reduction was not statistically significant. The CD388 treatment group also reported reduced influenza incidence rates compared to the placebo arm but again this was not statistically significant. Cidara also has cancer therapeutics as part of its pipeline, its most advanced candidate in the indication is CBO421. In July 2024, the company received investigational new drug application (IND) clearance to start a Phase I trial for evaluating CBO421 in solid tumours. However, Cidara’s SEC filing noted that it “does not currently plan to initiate clinical trials for any other product candidate”. The company has started multiple strategic measures to raise capital this year, including the sale of its rezafungin programme to Mundipharma and a $240m private investment in a public equity financing deal. Both efforts were expected to fund the Phase IIb trial of CD388. Following the recent round of lay-offs, Cidara joins a list of pharmaceutical companies, including Atreca , Candel Therapeutics , Kinnate Bio , and NexImmune , that have fired workers to funnel more money into their clinical development pipelines.