OncoMed Slashes Workforce 50% After Clinical Failures

April 25, 2017

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