After seeing its two most advanced cancer therapies fail in clinical trials this month, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals is halving its workforce and focusing on three early clinical-stage programs.
The California-based company will be left with 64 employees after the layoffs. OncoMed has had unfortunate setbacks recently as its experimental pancreatic cancer drug failed a mid-stage study and Bayer decided not to exercise its option on other cancer drugs.
Additionally, OncoMed announced that results from a Phase 2 trial in patients with small cell lung cancer showed that its drug tarextumab, in combination with chemotherapy, failed to outperform the placebo/chemotherapy combination. Following this announcement, OncoMed CEO Paul Hastings said the company would undertake a “comprehensive portfolio prioritization review.”
Read the Xconomy article