Oric Pharmaceuticals’ previously announced plan to focus resources on its two most advanced oncology drugs comes with a sting in its tail—the therapeutic-resistance-focused biotech is laying off 20% of its employees to finance the strategy.
The Californian company announced back in February that it was narrowing its focus to its two lead programs: a polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) inhibitor called ORIC-944; and a brain penetrant inhibitor targeting EGFR exon 20, HER2 exon 20 and EGFR atypical mutations called enozertinib.
Oric’s key goal is to launch phase 3 trials of both ORIC-944 and enozertinib in prostate cancer and lung cancer, respectively, next year.
The company pointed to recent data from an ongoing phase 1b study of ORIC-944 that it claimed position the therapy as a potential “best-in-class PRC inhibitor.” This included 59% of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who saw a 50% or greater reduction in their prostate-specific antigen level.
To focus on ORIC-944 and enozertinib, the biotech explained in its second-quarter earnings release Tuesday that it will eliminate its discovery research group, resulting in the loss of 20% of its workforce. At the same time, Oric will seek out potential partners for its preclinical programs.
“In the first half of the year, we’ve continued to make steady progress towards the potential initiation of phase 3 studies in 2026 for ORIC-944 in prostate cancer and ORIC-114 (now enozertinib) in lung cancer, and we were pleased to further strengthen our cash position and runway with recent financing activity,” CEO Jacob Chacko, M.D., said in the Aug. 12 post-market release.
“As our clinical programs have progressed closer to registrational studies, it necessitates that we increase our focus and direct our expenditures solely on those programs, and so we’ve made the tough, but prudent, decision to substantially reduce our investment in discovery research,” Chacko added. “This reprioritization and additional financing further extend our cash runway into the second half of 2028.”
The company ended June with $327.7 million in the bank, a sum that was buoyed by a $125 million private placement financing in May. Oric expects its layoffs to cost around $1.9 million in termination fees and related costs in the third quarter.