Five years in­to neoanti­gen work, cash-strapped Geno­cea lays off staff as it looks for 's­trate­gic al­ter­na­tives'

Days af­ter re­port­ing “en­cour­ag­ing” da­ta at AACR that how­ev­er failed to en­thuse in­vestors, Geno­cea Bio­sciences says it’s time to seek “strate­gic al­ter­na­tives.”

As a re­sult, the Cam­bridge, MA-based biotech will be lay­ing off 65% of its staff, which num­bered 74 at the end of last year, join­ing a grow­ing group of drug de­vel­op­ers strug­gling amid a bear mar­ket.

It’s not the first time Geno­cea had to piv­ot un­der pres­sure. Co-found­ed in 2006 by Har­vard’s David Sin­clair and Dar­ren Hig­gins, the com­pa­ny orig­i­nal­ly set out to de­vel­op low-cost vac­cines against a range of virus­es and bac­te­ria. But fast for­ward to 2017, when ex­ecs de­cid­ed to shelve work on the lead, Phase III-ready pro­gram for gen­i­tal her­pes, putting it up for auc­tion as it let go 40% of the staff in a ma­jor re­vamp. (Sh­iono­gi picked up an op­tion to li­cense the vac­cine, GEN-003, for $2 mil­lion in cash, al­though it ul­ti­mate­ly de­cid­ed not to.)

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER