Two months after revealing that a heart failure collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb had hit the buffers, Ambrx Biopharma has lost its CEO and announced a “strategic review” of its pipeline.
Bristol Myers disclosed the end of phase 2 development of the companies’ heart failure drug FA relaxin back in July. Now, Ambrx faces a larger reset and is in need of a new full-time leader while a review of the pipeline is conducted.
The biotech, which develops engineered precision biologics, has lost Feng Tian, Ph.D., as CEO. Tian will be replaced “immediately” by Ambrx board member Kate Hermans as interim CEO, Ambrx announced postmarket Tuesday.
The company has already launched a search for a permanent CEO, with Tian agreeing to remain available in an advisory capacity. Hermans, whose over two decades of experience across the healthcare industry included stints at Bristol Myers and Pfizer, said she would “ensure a smooth transition of leadership.”
As if one disruption wasn’t enough, the company plans to conduct a strategic review of its development pipeline “to maximize our commercial opportunities and further extend the cash runway.”
“Ambrx remains confident in the clinical data of its drug candidates, in its platform technology, and in the ongoing promise of precision biologics,” the company said in a statement.
In the near term, this pipeline prioritization will involve strengthening partnerships, said Ambrx, which singled out a collaboration with China’s NovoCodex. The two companies have an anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) called RX788 for cancer in phase 3, with an anti-CD70 ADC for cancer in preclinical development. Ambrx also has a couple of preclinical immuno-oncology assets in the works with another Chinese partner, Sino Biopharmaceutical.
Among the collaborations led by Ambrx’s partners, the most advanced was a nonalcoholic steatohepatitis drug with Bristol Myers called pegbelfermin in phase 3, but this was also shelved by the Big Pharma in November on sight of some midstage results. That leaves a phase 1 prostate cancer candidate with AbbVie heading up the pack.