Cyteir is pressing pause on its next-in-line cancer med in a bid to extend its cash runway by six months and make sure it can pay for clinical work on its lead asset.
The company says that it will halt the development of CYT-1853 and pump the breaks on asking regulators to greenlight its clinical ambitions, according to the company’s latest earnings released Tuesday. The expectation is that the move will elongate Cyteir’s cash runway from the beginning of 2024 to mid-year. The extra money will go toward funding the company’s lead oncology med CYT-0851 and “discovery research efforts to expand the company’s synthetically lethal preclinical pipeline.”
CYT-1853 is designed to inhibit monocarboxylate transporters, a type of protein involved with cancer metabolism. By year's end, Cyteir had hoped to ask regulators to launch CYT-1853 into the clinic. But amid a dismal—albeit slightly improving—biotech market, preserving cash reserves is paramount.
Instead, at the top of the company’s agenda is clearing the clinical pathway for CYT-0851, currently in two phase 1 trials as a monotherapy and combo therapy respectively to treat solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Initial data of the monotherapy in solid tumors is expected in the fourth quarter while data in hematologic malignancies is slated for the first half of 2023.
Additionally, Cyteir has opened a phase 2 cohort testing the monotherapy in breast cancer patients, replacing the company’s multiple myeloma arm, which has been discontinued. The company chalked the move up to the “evolving treatment landscapes” in multiple myeloma and large B-cell lymphoma, hinting that it wouldn’t be able to compete against other companies in the space.
After raising $29 million in early 2018, Cyteir joined the public biotech boom just as it was beginning to slide, closing a $133.2 million IPO in June 2021. Since then, the company’s shares have crumbled, from $17.40 to $2.52. As for the company’s existing runway, it currently has $166.4 million on hand. After reporting $4.5 million more in R&D spend in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the year before, development costs have evened out and are now about the same as the second quarter of last year.