ImmunityBio will part with 10 employees this quarter. Last fall, it cut 31 employees. The moves come as the biotech works to advance Anktiva in non-small cell lung cancer.
ImmunityBio’s layoffs are continuing into 2025, with the San Diego–based biotech cutting 10 employees in California effective March 25, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices. The company has not announced the workforce reduction or reasons behind it.
The biotech had 672 employees as of Sept. 30, according to a Nov. 12 SEC filing. Given ImmunityBio let go 31 people over the course of October and November, this means the new cuts—nine in El Segundo and one in Culver City—could leave the company with around 630 staffers.
At the same time that ImmunityBio is trimming its workforce, it’s also moving forward with a new collaboration involving Anktiva, its FDA-approved immunotherapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, according to a Jan. 29 announcement. The company has entered into a collaboration and supply agreement with BeiGene, a global oncology company, to conduct a confirmatory randomized Phase III clinical trial combining BeiGene’s PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) tislelizumab and Anktiva in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The trial is looking in part to test the potential for the two immunotherapeutic agents to improve overall survival in patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC who have acquired resistance to immune CPI therapy. ImmunityBio hopes to submit a Biologics License Application (BLA) for this indication this year.
The company has had previous challenges bringing Anktiva to market in another indication. The FDA rejected its BLA for Anktiva in bladder cancer in May 2023, ultimately approving it in April 2024.
In a Jan. 21 investor’s note, Aviso Capital Partners stated that while Anktiva has produced outstanding data in its approved indication, the approval “hasn’t done much for the company or its retail shareholders.” The firm noted that there was a short spike following the approval, but the stock had steadily declined over the past few months. It’s trading at $3.48 as of Jan. 31.
