Sana Cuts 15 Percent of Staff Under Restructuring

Sana Biotechnology, which is developing engineered cells as medicines, announced a restructuring that will cut about 15 percent of its staff as part of a reorganization designed to optimize the development of programs at or nearing clinical development and extend its cash runway into 2025.

Photo: Steve Harr, Sana’s president and CEO

As a result of the changes, the company said it would focus its second HIP-modified allogeneic CAR T program on targeting CD22 for CD19 CAR T failures, halting further internal investment in its SC187 program (cardiomyocytes for heart failure), and stage-gating certain platform investments based upon clinical progress in humans.

Sana said its timelines for the company’s lead programs, including time to IND and clinical data, are not expected to be impacted.

The company said it remains on track to file an application to begin human clinical trials this year on its SC291 (hypoimmune-modified, CD19-targeted allogeneic CAR T) with initial clinical data expected in 2023. Preclinical data continue to highlight the potential for the hypoimmune (HIP) platform to hide its allogeneic cells from immune detection, creating the potential for longer CAR T cell persistence and higher durable complete response rates in cancer patients. The company intends to study the therapy in a number of B cell malignancies.

“We are making significant progress with our platforms to address two of the fundamental opportunities to enable greater utilization of cell engineering to treat serious diseases – overcoming immune rejection of allogeneic cells and in vivo delivery of gene modification reagents in a cell-specific manner,” said Steve Harr, Sana’s president and CEO. “Prioritization is important, and we will continue to make decisions based upon internal data, external evolution of the field, and the company’s needed capabilities to deliver on the promise of our pipeline with important medicines for patients.”

Author: Rare Daily Staff