The pile of discarded biotech R&D programs is getting bigger and bigger. Hutchmed, NightHawk Biosciences and NexImmune are the latest companies to add to the list, tossing out programs yesterday in response to cash constraints and strategy shifts.
Hutchmed, a commercial-stage biopharma based in Hong Kong, is embarking on a major pipeline shift to adapt its business to “the challenging market conditions currently affecting the global biopharmaceutical sector.” Going forward, the company will focus on late-stage and registrational studies, particularly trials to support global approvals of VEGFR inhibitor fruquintinib, which delivered a phase 3 hit this week.
To free up resources for the late-stage programs, “selected early-stage studies will not be prioritized for internal development, and others will be considered as candidates for out-licensing opportunities,” the company said. Some studies will wind down, and Hutchmed will seek partners to commercialize its assets outside of China. Management will provide updates on specific programs “in due course.”
Hutchmed is making the cuts despite ending June with $862 million to its name. Other companies have rather less cash to throw at drug development. At NightHawk, the management team is stopping work on clinical-stage oncology programs after seeing its cash reserves fall by more than $10 million to $57.4 million in the third quarter.
In light of its “evolving focus,” NightHawk is deprioritizing its oncology programs and pulling the plug on further development of candidates including the off-the-shelf cell-based immunotherapy HS-110 and immunomodulatory antibody PTX-35. The company will now focus on biomanufacturing and medical countermeasures to biothreats.
NexImmune has cash constraints, too. After ending the third quarter with $45.9 million, the company is pausing development of its adoptive cell therapy products in a blood cancer trial and scrapping plans to start a second study in HPV-mediated tumors, at least for now. The changes will allow NexImmune to put its remaining money into another nanoparticle platform, AIM INJ.
As part of the changes, NexImmune is reducing its head count by around 30%, mostly by laying off staff involved in the clinical development and production of the cell therapies. The cuts make NexImmune part of a band of biotechs that started the week with news of both pipeline and workforce changes, with Harpoon Therapeutics and Neoleukin Therapeutics also shelving programs and laying off staff.