Barinthus Bio is shifting its focus to just two investigational candidates and cutting about 25% of its workforce in order to extend cash runway into the second quarter of 2026, the company announced Wednesday.
The UK-based immunotherapy biotech said that it would refine its pipeline down to two candidates — VTP-300 in chronic hepatitis B and VTP-1000 in celiac disease — following positive data for both.
The HBV003 trial for its drug in hepatitis B showed the “potential” to reduce hepatitis B surface antigen levels and even reach undetectable levels, according to the company, fueling hopes for a functional cure. Earlier this month, Barinthus presented data at EASL, showing that four out of 21 (19%) patients had no detectable levels of the hepatitis B surface antigen, and 14 patients had surface antigen levels below <10 IU/mL when taking VTP-300 plus a dose of Opdivo.
For celiac disease, Barinthus’ candidate showed promise in preclinical trials, with the company planning to start a Phase 1 trial in the third quarter of this year. The company added that its platform, SNAP-TI, will also remain part of the new focus.
In April, Barinthus announced positive Phase 1b/2 data for a candidate in HPV, VTP-200, that is not mentioned as part of its new focus, even though the drug met the primary safety endpoint in the trial and the patients taking the highest dose achieved a 60% high-risk HPV clearance rate at 12 months, versus 33% on placebo.
A current Phase 1 clinical trial of another therapy in prostate cancer will be completed, Barinthus said, but it didn’t give more details on the future of the investigational drug, called VTP-850.
Bill Enright“With this pipeline prioritization, we put the Company in a strong position to maximize the probability of success, particularly given the encouraging VTP-300 Phase 2 interim data presented at EASL earlier this month and the compelling differentiation of our novel SNAP-TI platform to treat autoimmune diseases,” Barinthus CEO Bill Enright said in a statement. “In line with our pipeline prioritization, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce.”
According to SEC filings, as of Dec. 31, 2023, Barinthus had 130 full-time and part-time employees, with 95 in the UK, 34 in the US and one in Switzerland. Barinthus didn’t specify exactly which countries would be impacted by the layoffs.