The headcount reduction will save money that the company will use in developing mavorixafor, its CXCR4 antagonist that last year received FDA approval to treat WHIM syndrome, in the larger patient population with chronic neutropenia.
X4 Pharmaceuticals announced Thursday it is laying off 43 people, about 30% of its employees worldwide. The Boston-based company is closing a “research center of excellence” in Vienna, Austria, and pausing all pre-clinical drug candidates, according to a statement. The layoffs and scale-back of operations will save the company between $30 million and 35 million.
The news comes less than a year after X4 got FDA approval in April 2024 for mavorixafor, a CXCR4 antagonist now marketed as Xolremdi, for the treatment of an immunodeficiency syndrome known as WHIM (warts, hypogammaglobulinemia, infections and myelokathexis) syndrome. At the time, the company stated that it was the first FDA approval specifically targeted for the disorder.
Last month, X4 signed a licensing deal with Norgine, a European pharma company, to commercialize mavorixafor in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. That deal netted X4 €28.5 million ($29.55 million) up front and up to €226 million ($234.29 million) in regulatory and commercial milestones.
Thursday’s announcement is not the first time X4 has executed such cuts. In July 2022, X4 took a similar tack, laying off 20% of its workforce, saving itself about $25 million to focus on mavorixafor and two pre-clinical candidates that also antagonize CXCR4 (X4P-002 and X4P-003). The company also said then that it was on the hunt for potential oncology partnerships, touting mavorixafor and X4P-002 as potential treatment for leukemias, lymphomas, and Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a cancer of white blood cells. The new reprioritization will mean stopping development of X4P-002 and X4P-003, however.
The money saved by the new cuts will go toward clinical development of mavorixafor for treating chronic neutropenia. X4 announced positive data from a Phase II trial for that indication June 2024, and a Phase III trial was initiated at that time.
