AN2 is discontinuing a study that evaluated epetraborole for treatment-refractory MAC lung disease and plans to shift focus to its boron chemistry platform.
AN2 Therapeutics, a biopharma company focused on novel small molecule drugs, will lay off about 50% of its employees, according to an Aug. 7 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. An earlier SEC filing stated that as of Feb. 29, the company had 41 full-time employees including clinical operations, clinical development, research, manufacturing, regulatory and quality employees.
In the most recent filing, AN2 noted the reduction in force should be mostly complete by the end of 2024 and will include the departure of Paul Eckburg, the company’s chief medical officer, on Aug. 30. Eckburg will provide consulting services to the company for up to one year after that transition date.
According to the SEC filing, the force reduction is connected to AN2’s planned focus shift following discontinuation of its EBO-301 study.
The study evaluated epetraborole on top of an optimized background regimen (OBR) in treatment-refractory MAC lung disease. In the most recent SEC filing, the company shared that the study met its primary objective of demonstrating potential validation of a novel patient-reported outcome (PRO) tool and a higher PRO-based clinical response rate in the epetraborole plus OBR arm (39.5%) vs. the placebo plus OBR arm (25.0%). However, sputum culture conversion, a key secondary endpoint, was similar between treatment arms, at 13.2% for epetraborole plus OBR vs. 10% for the placebo plus OBR.
The layoff is also intended to further extend the company’s operating capital and align personnel toward executing its ongoing strategy. As a result of the move, AN2 expects to incur aggregate charges of approximately $2 million to $3 million, including severance and other employee termination-related expenses.
In an Aug. 8 press release, Eric Easom, AN2 co-founder, chairman, president and CEO, discussed the company’s focus moving forward.
“In the near-term, we plan to accelerate our R&D efforts on our boron chemistry platform where we believe we have several promising programs in infectious diseases and oncology,” he said.
