A not-so-fun year for Cyteir has reached rock bottom, with the company planning to dissolve and end all work.
Cyteir is cutting the line on CYT-0851, a phase 1 cancer med, according to a Friday announcement. The company said data from the study indicated that while “durable responses” were observed, the med was not worth advancing into further trials. It was being tested in combination with a couple of forms of chemotherapy to treat advanced ovarian cancer and other types of solid tumors.
The company said it couldn’t afford to pour additional money into the development of CYT-0851, namely finding predictive biomarkers that could better detail the ideal patient population. Cyteir will continue to treat patients with either chemotherapy until the company has officially shuttered.
“While we wish that the outcome was different today, we believe that discontinuation of our programs and a dissolution of the company will maximize shareholder value,” said CEO Markus Renschler, M.D.
The reality is that the walls have been closing in on Cyteir for the better part of a year, dating back to August 2022 when the company culled a runner-up cancer med, CYT-1853, to focus on CYT-0851. The decision was meant to elongate the available cash runway into the middle of 2024.
The hits, unfortunately, kept coming, with Cyteir cutting 70% of its staff in January. And less than two months ago, a “for sale” sign was added to the company’s preclinical pipeline. Now Cyteir will look to sell off its remaining assets and distribute any cash to shareholders, pending approval from a special shareholder meeting set for the second half of the year.
Cyteir established itself on the biotech scene in 2018 when it netted $29 million in series B funding and plucked Renschler to steer the ship after he led global hematology work at Celgene. Three years later, in 2021, the company filed for a $100 million IPO.
Now, once the dissolution is certified, Cyteir will hop off Wall Street.