EQRx cuts workforce as it looks to reboot business
08 May 2023
Phase 3Phase 2Clinical ResultClinical Trial TerminationPhase 1
EQRx is eliminating 170 jobs and axing several programmes as it "resets" its focus on clinically differentiated medicines. The company was launched in 2020 on the premise of being able to deliver life-saving treatments at significantly lower cost, although signs of trouble emerged late last year when it acknowledged that it saw "no commercially viable path" in the US for its lung cancer hopeful sugemalimab, a drug partnered with CStone Pharmaceuticals that it is now cutting from its pipeline.
"Going forward, EQRx will leverage its significant scale of capital and team of experienced 'drug hunters' towards developing clinically differentiated, high-value medicines," remarked CEO Melanie Nallicheri in a statement Monday.
The anti-PD-L1 antibody sugemalimab showed a survival benefit in a Phase III trial of patients with Stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the study was conducted entirely in China, and the FDA had signalled a tougher stance on filings backed by China-only data when it declined to approve Eli Lilly and Innovent Biologics' similar treatment sintilimab earlier last year. EQRx said that in addition to sugemalimab, it is also ending work on the anti-PD-1 antibody nofazinlimab, another programme partnered with CStoneCStone, as well as the JAK 1 inhibitorJAK 1 inhibitor EQ121, which was being co-developed with Lynk Pharmaceuticals.
Pivot to lerociclib
EQRx reiterated that it will now shift its focus to advancing the CDK 4/6 inhibitor lerociclib, which recently entered a Phase III trial for first-line advanced endometrial cancer. Enrollment in Phase II testing is also nearly done in first- and second-line advanced breast cancer. "Lerociclib, with its compelling early clinical data and potential for strong financial return, is an exciting starting point from which to build our pipeline, along with some of our early-stage oncology programmes," Nallicheri said.
Meanwhile, EQRx is also looking to set up commercialisation partnerships for aumolertinib outside China. The third-generation EGFR inhibitorEGFR inhibitor is currently under review by regulators in the EU and UK for the treatment of EGFR-mutated NSCLC. The Phase IIIb TREBLE study of aumolertinib in the US is ongoing for use in combination with chemotherapy or alone versus AstraZeneca's Tagrisso (osimertinib) for first-line EGFR-mutated NSCLC. The company previously said that a US filing for aumolertinib would have to wait until 2027.
EQRx also intends to split its early-stage immune-inflammatory R&D programmes from its oncology business into a new wholly-owned subsidiary, and intends to "explore its path as an independent company," Nallicheri said. It plans to continue financially backing these projects "in the near term" and has allocated about $25 million to this effort for the remainder of 2023.
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