Enlivex is laying off 60% of its workforce, ending preclinical R&D and trimming its top execs’ salaries as the Israeli biotech tries to keep cash flowing to its osteoarthritis drug.
The company’s clinical strategy is focused on an ongoing phase 2b study of allocetra, an off-the-shelf, cell-based immunotherapy for age-related symptomatic primary knee osteoarthritis. The changes outlined today should keep money flowing until that trial reads out in mid-2027, according to the company’s release.
Last year, the biotech announced phase 2a data that it said demonstrated a “substantial reduction in pain and improvement in function across multiple efficacy endpoints.”
To deliver on that potential, Enlivex is laying off 60% of its workforce. The company entered the year with 34 full-time employees.
Alongside the reduction in headcount and pausing non-clinical R&D, Enlivex said the salaries of the company's management team will be reduced 20%, while CEO Oren Hershkovitz, Ph.D., will see his salary slashed by 40%.
“Our priorities are clear. The positive results from our phase 1/2a trial of allocetra and the FDA’s Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation give us strong conviction in allocetra's potential in treating knee osteoarthritis,” Hershkovitz said in the release.
“We believe that the most important milestone ahead of us is the six-month topline data from our phase 2b trial,” the CEO added. “By winding down non-clinical R&D, reducing our workforce, and having management, including myself, take substantial salary reductions, we are focusing our resources to reach that readout as efficiently as possible, which we expect by mid-2027.”
Enlivex has an unusual business model. As well as advancing allocetra through the clinic, the company operates a prediction markets treasury strategy. This dual approach “combines the development of quality longevity therapeutics with exposure to the emerging prediction markets ecosystem,” according to Enlivex.
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