Capricor Therapeutics and NextCure have shed light on recent rounds of layoffs, as the biotechs brace for a hoped-for drug approval and merger, respectively.
Capricor used its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday to reveal that it laid off 10% of its workforce during the quarter. The San Diego-based biotech entered the year with 231 full-time employees.
Capricor, which had $198.5 million in the bank at the end of September, said the workforce reduction was needed to “reduce operating expenses and align resources with its priorities.”
Those priorities include preparing for the hoped-for launch of its Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) cell therapy deramiocel, with an FDA decision expected later this month. As part of the application, the company recently submitted two-year open-label extension data from a phase 3 study, which pushed the decision date back three months from a previous August target.
Deramiocel is meant to restore heart and skeletal muscle function in DMD patients. The treatment consists of specialized heart cells, called cardiosphere-derived cells, sourced from donor cadavers, which are given via IV infusion every three months.
Deramiocel’s regulatory path hasn’t been straightforward. The FDA knocked back the first approval application—which was based on phase 2 data—last year. Then in July, an FDA advisory committee voted against the biotech’s second attempt.
Still, CEO Linda Marbán, Ph.D., said in the release that the company “remain[s] confident in the strength of our data.”
“With our San Diego facility operational, we are prepared to move quickly to bring deramiocel to patients, if approved,” Marbán added.
NextCure underwent ‘significant restructuring’
NextCure, which is gearing up for a planned merger with Avere Therapeutics, hasn’t been as clear about the extent of its own recent layoffs.
The company disclosed in its latest earnings results that it had completed “significant restructuring initiatives” in the third quarter, including “workforce reductions, termination of facility leases and disposition of all laboratory, manufacturing and facility-related assets.”
This had resulted in a “substantial reduction to the company’s future operating cash requirements,” said NextCure, whose cash reserves had dwindled to just $8.7 million by the end of September from a pile of $41.8 million at the start of the year. However, the company has secured around $820 million in committed financing from a “syndicate of leading healthcare-focused and institutional investors” to support the merger.
The biotech entered 2026 with 40 full-time employees, and Fierce has asked NextCure how many were affected by the restructuring.
NextCure’s shareholders are due to vote on the planned reverse merger with Avere next month. The merged company will use NextCure’s Nasdaq listing but keep Avere’s brand and focus on an IL-23 drug sourced from Hansoh Pharmaceutical.
It means NextCure has been on the hunt for a partner or buyer for SIM0505, a CDH6-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that the biotech secured in a $745 million deal with Simcere last year. NextCure has already passed over the full rights for the B7-H4 ADC LNCB74 to its partner LigaChem Biosciences.
“During the third quarter, we continued to execute on the strategic initiatives associated with our proposed merger with Avere Therapeutics,” NextCure CEO Michael Richman said in the release.
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