I-Mab Cuts 27% of Workforce After Pipeline Re-Prioritization

Group Of Employees Being Fired By Their Company.

The layoffs follow an announcement in early January that I-Mab will re-prioritize resources to focus on advancing a CLDN18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific antibody for gastric cancers.

I-Mab will cut 27% of staff, weeks after announcing a reprioritization of its pipeline to focus on a Phase I bispecific antibody.

The move will cost the Maryland-based immuno-oncology company about $300,000 but is estimated to save about $3 million overall. I-Mab expects the realignment to finish by the end of the first quarter 2025, the company said Tuesday. According to 2023 filings, I-Mab had 220 total employees, though most worked at a divested China operation.

The layoffs follow an announcement in early January that I-Mab will re-prioritize resources to focus on advancing lead molecule givastomig, a CLDN18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific antibody for certain metastatic gastric cancers. The candidate is currently in Phase Ib trials in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb’s checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo and chemotherapy, with data readouts expected in the second half of 2025. Other trials featuring givastomig are expected to readout in 2026.

I-Mab did not update its cash runway expectations, but the pipeline change announcement indicated the company expects to be operating until at least 2027 if no new cash infusions come along. As of third quarter earnings, I-Mab had $184.4 million in cash on hand as of September 30, 2024.

I-Mab had been banking on a huge windfall from a collaboration with AbbVie, which was terminated by the Big Pharma in 2023. The partners had been working on an anti-CD47 molecules, with up to $1.3 billion in milestone payments on the line.

I-Mab recently wrapped a Phase II clinical trial in China on TJ107, a recombinant human interleukin-7, for glioblastoma multiforme, though no data or other results have been reported. The company is also recruiting for a Phase I trial of TJ210001, another bispecific antibody against C5aR for advanced, relapsed or refractory solid tumors.

Dan Samorodnitsky is the news editor at BioSpace. You can reach him at dan.samorodnitsky@biospace.com.
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