Or­na Ther­a­peu­tics trims staff in ‘de­fen­sive re­duc­tion’ de­spite large fi­nanc­ing hauls

Or­na Ther­a­peu­tics, a biotech work­ing on cir­cu­lar RNA with a new twist on CAR ther­a­pies, has laid off em­ploy­ees, CEO Tom Barnes con­firmed to End­points News.

The work­force re­duc­tion fol­lows more than 100 oth­er biotechs that have turned to lay­offs this year and marks an­oth­er cell and gene ther­a­py start­up to use lay­offs as a cost-sav­ing mea­sure as in­vestors shun plat­form ap­proach­es. The com­pa­ny de­clined to say how many peo­ple were be­ing let go, but Barnes said it was un­der 25% of staff. Head­count was “a lit­tle less” than 140, he not­ed.

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