Despite the promise of its technology and funding from big backers, Tome Biosciences is “operating at reduced capacity” and weighing its “strategic options” as the Massachusetts-based company faces an uncertain future.
Tome Biosciences, which launched with a mission to revolutionize genomic medicines, has pared down operations and is exploring its “strategic options” due to a shift in “investor sentiment” in the gene editing space.
The development, first reported by STAT News, comes just months after Tome made its debut in December 2023 with $213 million in Series A and Series B funding from big backers including ARCH Venture Partners, Alexandria Venture Investments and Longwood Fund.
The Massachusetts-based startup emerged from stealth to advance its programmable genomic integration (PGI), which CEO Rahul Kakkar at the time called “revolutionary” for its ability to “reprogram the human genome with an elegance and efficiency previously unimaginable.” The approach could yield “potentially curative treatments with a single drug per disease” for rare monogenic conditions, regardless of heterogeneity, Kakkar said.
However, Tome’s vision is not holding up to market realities. A company spokesperson in a statement to STAT said that “investor sentiment has shifted dramatically across the gene editing space, particularly for clinical companies.”
Tome “is operating at a reduced capacity, maintaining core expertise, and we are in ongoing confidential conversations with multiple parties to explore strategic options,” the spokesperson said. The company has yet to confirm what strategic changes it is considering, how many employees will be affected and the potential impacts on its pipeline and platform.
However, a person familiar with the matter told STAT that the startup is heading towards its closure and needs to find a buyer by Nov. 1. Another insider disputed this, noting that Tome can still stay afloat. Both sources spoke to STAT on condition of anonymity.
Tome’s PGI platform achieves the site-specificity of the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 system, using enzymes that are capable of inserting or writing entire genes without needing to introduce double-stranded breaks into the target DNA.
At the time of its launch, Tome’s most advanced program was integrase-mediated PGI (i-PGI). The biotech at the time likened the technology, which makes use of proprietary enzymes, to a word processor, “capable of pasting test anywhere in a document.” I-PGI has achieved insertions of large fragments of DNA—with some exceeding 30kb of genetic code—with high site-specificity.
In May 2024, Tome presented data from its CD19/BCMA program using the I-PGI platform, showing that it could efficiently integrate 12,000 base pairs into induced pluripotent stem cells. I-PGI also led to functional expression of genes that could boost the efficacy of an autoimmune cell therapy.
In January 2024, Tome paid $65 million upfront to acquire Replace Therapeutics, which also uses DNA ligases, combining it with the CRISPR/Cas9 system to precisely alter short DNA sequences. The transaction has a total value of around $185 million in stock and cash.
