BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals isn’t giving up on its experimental treatment for chemotherapy complications, but the company will have fewer employees to support its development.The biotech company is laying off about 35% of its workforce as part of a cash saving reorganization In November, the FDA rejected the drug, plinabulin.
New York-based BeyondSpring employs 91 full-time employees, according to the company’s 2020 annual report. In preparation for Purablin’s expected commercial launch, headcount may have increased over the past year. BeyondSpring says in an article Regulatory filing Expenses related to the layoffs are expected to be approximately $1 million, most of which will occur in the first quarter of this year. As of September 30, 2021, the biotech company had a cash position of $91.6 million, according to an investor presentation.
Plinabulin was developed to treat chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN), a type of dangerously low level of white blood cells called neutrophils. Low levels of neutrophils mean cancer patients face a higher risk of infection. While CIN treatments are available, they can take up to a week to start working. Plinabulin’s value proposition is that it’s designed to work faster. In rejecting BeyondSpring’s drug application, The FDA said the company’s separate Phase 3 study was insufficient to demonstrate the benefit of plinabulin in patients, and the agency called on the company to conduct a second well-controlled study to provide more evidence.
BeyondSpring’s drug pipeline is dominated by various applications of plinabulin. In addition to CIN, the biotech is also testing the drug’s ability to elicit an immune response as a potential cancer treatment. Last year, a phase 3 study evaluating the drug in combination with chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer met its primary goal. In addition, BeyondSpring has three preclinical immuno-oncology assets and a subsidiary, SEED Therapeutics, which is discovering drugs that work through a mechanism called targeted protein degradation. SEED partners with Eli Lilly and Company.
In its restructuring announcement, BeyondSpring said it plans to focus on the regulatory process for plinabulin in the U.S. and China CINs. The company also plans to submit a New Drug Application for small molecules in non-small cell lung cancer. Additional clinical trials are planned to evaluate the drug as part of a triple immunotherapy combination for multiple cancers.
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