Solid Biosciences will say goodbye to 35% of its employees as it looks to streamline operations and shift to an outsourced manufacturing process.
According to an SEC filing, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is cutting back on its employees as it moves to a commercially scaled, transient transfection-based manufacturing process that will be outsourced and also reevaluates its pipeline.
At the same time, the company announced its chief operating officer, Joel Schneider, is leaving to head up a private gene therapy biotech.
The company will focus on its two key pipeline AAV therapies, SGT-001 and SGT-002, as it shifts its manufacturing process to allow for a more streamlined development, Solid Bio said.
Solid Bio focuses on developing gene therapies for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disorder that causes progressive muscle degeneration.
This is not the first time Solid Bio has scaled back its workforce. In January 2020, the biotech let one-third of its workers go after multiple holds from the U.S. FDA for SGT-001. Among those who left were COO Alvaro Amorrortu and chief medical officer Jorge Quiroz.
The biotech is one of many that have scaled back on its workforce in recent months. Black Diamond Therapeutics and bluebird bio both announced they would be scaling back their employees this month thanks to cash flow concerns.