French biotech Inventiva’s layoffs and pipeline shift are expected to help keep the company operational into the second half of 2026.
As it moves to focus exclusively on developing lanifibranor for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, French biotech Inventiva is laying off half its employees. The company expects to implement the workforce reduction in the second quarter, according to its Monday announcement.
As part of its pipeline shift, Inventiva will stop all preclinical research activities except those that support the lanifibranor program. That includes ending work on its primary oncology program meant to disrupt the interaction between YAP and TEAD that occurs along the Hippo signaling pathway.
Inventiva in early January finished patient screening in a Phase III clinical trial testing lanifibranor in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). More than 95% of participants have been randomized, and enrollment should be complete within the first half of this year, with top-line results in the second half of 2026, according to the announcement.
The biotech voluntarily paused the trial’s patient recruitment in February 2024 following a case of severe liver enzyme elevations. In March 2024, the FDA approved competitor Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ Rezdiffra (resmetirom) as the first-ever MASH therapy.
Inventiva noted in its announcement that its 2024 revenue was 9.2 million euros ($9.5 million), down from 17.5 million ($18.1 million) in 2023. As of Dec. 31, the company had cash and cash equivalents of 96.6 million euros ($99.8 million).
The biotech expects in the second quarter to receive gross proceeds of about 116 million euros ($119.8 million) from a second tranche of structured financing and a second milestone payment of $10 million from Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group under a licensing agreement with CTTQ for clinical development of lanifibranor in China. Those proceeds and payment, along with the staff cuts and pipeline shift, should keep the company operational until the end of the third quarter of 2026, according to the announcement.
