As monother­a­py da­ta dis­ap­point, Cyteir lets go of 35 staffers, goes all in on ovar­i­an can­cer

Over the sum­mer, as the biotech blues dragged on and de­pressed Cyteir Ther­a­peu­tics shares, ex­ecs de­cid­ed to post­pone clin­i­cal plans for a sec­ond can­di­date and fo­cus on the lead pro­gram along­side dis­cov­ery re­search in oth­er syn­thet­ic lethal­i­ty path­ways in can­cer.

It turns out they need to cut even deep­er.

Cyteir put out word on Thurs­day that it’s sus­pend­ing en­roll­ment in­to a Phase II tri­al test­ing its lead drug, CYT-0851, as a monother­a­py “due to in­suf­fi­cient monother­a­py ac­tiv­i­ty ob­served to date.” Mov­ing ahead, the biotech said it will con­cen­trate re­sources on de­vel­op­ing a com­bi­na­tion ther­a­py of CYT-0851 plus the chemother­a­py capecitabine in ovar­i­an can­cer. That means shelv­ing pre­clin­i­cal re­search and de­fer­ring R&D in all oth­er ar­eas.

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