As part of cost-cutting efforts, Alector is letting go of about 25 people as it focuses on advancing its preclinical and research pipeline. Alector is also continuing clinical-stage work on programs for frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
A little over three months after announcing a plan to cut about 17% of its staff in the first half of 2025, Alector has disclosed another layoff. The San Francisco–based biotech is letting go of about 13% of its workforce, representing roughly 25 people, according to an SEC filing.
Alector expects to complete most of the latest cuts this month, a company spokesperson told BioSpace. The workforce reduction, once finished, will likely leave the company with just under 170 employees. According to the SEC filing, existing cash, cash equivalents and investments should fund the biotech’s operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through 2026.
The latest layoffs are among cost-cutting initiatives meant to help the company align resources with its strategic priorities, which include advancing its preclinical and research pipeline, according to the SEC filing. Alector disclosed the cuts about a month after announcing fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 financial results. The company’s financials for last year included a net loss of $119 million, an improvement over 2023’s $130 million net loss, as well as cash, cash equivalents and investments totaling $413.4 million as of Dec. 31, 2024.
In the announcement, CEO Arnon Rosenthal said Alector looks forward to reporting topline data from the INFRONT-3 Phase III trial of progranulin drug latozinemab, which targets frontotemporal dementia, by the fourth quarter. He added that the company expects to finish enrolling participants with early Alzheimer’s disease in the PROGRESS-AD Phase II trial of another progranulin candidate, AL101/GSK4527226, by the middle of this year.
Alector is also working to advance a preclinical and early research pipeline focused on removing toxic proteins, replacing deficient proteins and restoring immune and nerve cell function, according to the announcement.
The company in late November 2024 announced it would cut 41 employees—about 17% of its total headcount—after disappointing Phase II findings for the Alzheimer’s antibody AL002. Those layoffs were part of an initiative meant to better align Alector’s resources with its new strategic priorities: focusing on latozinemab and AL101/GSK4527226. The biotech discontinued a long-term extension study for AL002.
Alector expects one-time restructuring charges of about $2.4 million associated with the latest workforce reduction.
Update (March 25): This article was updated to clarify that most of the cuts disclosed in March are expected to be complete this month and to remove reference to them being completed during the third quarter of 2025, as was indicated in the SEC filing.
