Bel­licum slash­es 79% of staffers af­ter ear­ly da­ta quash hope around next-gen CAR-T

Bel­licum Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals tried to make it work.

Over the past months the Hous­ton-based CAR-T play­er sold its man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty to MD An­der­son — trans­fer­ring 35 em­ploy­ees in the process — in fa­vor of an out­sourced arrange­ment and com­plet­ed a re­verse stock split, while drib­bling out new da­ta and get­ting an IND cleared.

But new in­ter­im da­ta from a Phase I/II tri­al pro­vid­ed the last straw. Bel­licum dis­closed late Thurs­day that it will be lay­ing off 79% of its staff, shav­ing the work­force from 68 to just 14 by the end of 2020.

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