Rubius Therapeutics’ board of directors has approved a plan to liquidate and dissolve the company, the Massachusetts-based biotech announced in an SEC form 8-K filed Monday.
Courtesy Shutterstock
Rubius Therapeutics’ board of directors has approved a plan to liquidate and dissolve the company, the Massachusetts-based biotech announced in an SEC form 8-K filed Monday.
The plan is still subject to the final approval of Rubius’ stockholders, for which the company is set to call a special meeting. In line with its dissolution plan, Rubius filed a Request for Withdrawal of Registration Statement to the SEC on Wednesday.
Following the news, Rubius’ stocks rose 10% in pre-market trading Wednesday.
The company’s closure follows a comprehensive restructuring initiative in November 2022, which included slashing 84% of its headcount. At the time, the company was looking into “strategic alternatives,” which included “a sale or merger of the company or one or more sales of its assets,” according to an 8-K filing.
A few months earlier, in September, Rubius had already implemented a strategic realignment initiative that showed the company lost 75% of its workforce in a pivot to its next-generation red blood cell-based cell conjugation platform.
After Rubius’ stockholders approve the plan to dissolve the company, Rubius leadership or any company successor will need to settle all claims and obligations of the company, as well as make any severance or additional compensation payments, according to the SEC filing. Any assets that remain after these payments will be distributed to the stockholders.
A Strong Start
Rubius launched in 2015 with $25 million in Series A funding to advance red blood cell treatments through the clinic. The company, backed by Flagship VentureLabs, was initially focused on autoimmune and metabolic diseases and cancer.
In 2018, the blood biotech raised $100 million in an oversubscribed crossover financing, bloating its bank account at the time to over $220 million. The same year, Rubius went public for $23 per share, making its $241.1 million IPO one of 2018’s largest.
Rubius’ mission was to use its proprietary RED platform to develop an entirely new class of cellular medicines called Red Cell Therapeutics (RCTs). Enucleated and engineered to express biotherapeutic proteins, RCTs were touted as potential treatments for cancer and diseases of the immune system.
The company initially harnessed this science against phenylketonuria, a genetic disorder that causes phenylalanine build-up in the blood, and other rare disease. However, due to program delays and manufacturing challenges, Rubius decided in March 2020 to pivot to oncology and focus on its solid tumor candidate RTX-240.
Rubius also eventually discontinued development of RTX-240, along with other early-stage programs for advanced solid tumors, in its September 2022 realignment initiative.
