ImmunityBio will lay off 15 employees in California, mostly in El Segundo, effective Nov. 25. The company is also letting go 16 employees later this month.
ImmunityBio’s California layoffs continue, with the company cutting 15 employees effective Nov. 25, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices. This brings the total number of employees let go in California this fall to 31.
The affected workers for the most recent layoffs are in Culver City, El Segundo and San Diego, with the majority—10—in El Segundo. These are in addition to the five employees in Culver City and 11 in El Segundo that will be laid off effective Oct. 29, according to an Aug. 30 WARN notice.
While ImmunityBio did not formally announce the new round of cuts or the reasons for them, a recent SEC filing noted the company’s financial challenges. As of June 30, the San Diego–based biotech had an accumulated deficit of $3.2 billion. It also had negative cash flows of $207.3 million during the six months ended June 30.
Part of the financial strain might be because ImmunityBio had to wait longer than hoped to see Anktiva, its first-in-class therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, hit the market. In May 2023, the FDA rejected its biologics license application (BLA) for the drug. The company got FDA approval in April, nearly a year later.
In August, ImmunityBio announced Anktiva is widely available to patients through commercial and government insurance programs and that it expects to expand its bladder cancer program globally, including in the European Union and India.
