Adverum Biotechnologies announced its plans to restructure and let go of 78 employees.
The clinical-stage gene therapy company also announced that it has completed its Investigational New Drug (IND) amendment with the FDA and is therefore preparing to begin the phase 2 Luna trial of ADVM-022, its leading gene therapy candidate. The drug, ixoberogene soroparvovec (Ixo-vec), is a one-time, IVT injection for patients with neovascular or wet age-related macular degeneration.
In the SEC filing, California-based Adverum says that the reduction and headcount and expenses will help prioritize clinical development for ixoberogene soroparvovec.
“These restructuring measures are intended to enable us to fully support our ADVM-022 development plan and extend our expected cash runway by approximately one year into 2025, providing us with additional resources beyond one-year topline LUNA results based on our current development timeline,” said Laurent Fischer, president and chief executive officer at Adverum Biotechnologies.
The LUNA trial will enroll up to 732 patients and evaluate dosage levels of the drug along with prophylactic steroid regimens. The first patient will be dosed later this year.