Arbutus Biopharma is stripping back its workforce to just a “core team” needed to oversee mid-stage trials of the biotech's potential functional cure for hepatitis B.
Lindsay Androski, who joined Arbutus as CEO a month ago along with a raft of new directors, said she is focused on “evaluating strategies to accelerate the development and potential approval of imdusiran, alongside several subject matter experts being retained to assist with this evaluation.”
“As part of this review, we have implemented a reduction in our workforce of 57%, retaining a core team well-positioned to advance imdusiran into a phase 2b trial, and have taken additional related steps to improve our financial and operational efficiency,” Androski said in a full-year earnings report.
The departing staff include Chief Medical Officer Karen Sims, M.D., Ph.D., and General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer J. Christopher Naftzger.
Alongside the personnel changes, Arbutus will vacate its corporate headquarters in Warminster, Pennsylvania, and cease all in-house scientific research.
Arbutus is assessing the RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic imdusiran in a pair of phase 2a studies as a potential functional cure for chronic hepatitis B virus (cHBV) infection when used in combination with the likes of standard-of-care pegylated interferon alfa-2α or Barinthus Biotherapeutic's T-cell stimulating immunotherapeutic VTP-300.
The biotech is now “reviewing development plans” for a phase 2b trial of imdusiran, “including potential ways to accelerate the development timeline,” the company said in the March 27 release.
“To assist with its review, the company is currently retaining experts in virology, hepatitis B, and in the clinical development and approval of antiviral treatments,” Arbutus added. “The company will provide a further update once its review is complete.”
The biotech also has an oral PD-L1 inhibitor dubbed AB-101-001 in phase 1 development for cHBV. Next steps for this candidate “will be determined upon completion of the company’s review of its cHBV programs,” Arbutus said.
The restructuring is only the latest round of layoffs to hit Arbutus, after the company shed 40% of its staff and cut back on clinical trials in August 2024.
This repeated salami slicing of headcount has left Arbutus with just 19 employees, according to today’s report. The biotech entered 2025 with $122.6 million in hand, although the various restructuring actions set out this morning are expected to set the company back between $11 million and $13 million.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/arbutus-jettisons-57-staff-ceases-house-research
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