I-Mab lays off 27% of workforce after pivoting to CLDN18.2 bispecific

I-Mab’s pipeline pivot had a sting in the tail. Weeks after shifting its focus, the biotech said Wednesday that it has reduced its workforce by around 27% in conjunction with the pipeline reprioritization.

Maryland-based I-Mab disclosed changes to its R&D pipeline in the first week of January. The biotech shunted uliledlimab, an anti-CD73 antibody that Sanofi is developing in China, down the pecking order to free up resources to develop givastomig. I-Mab shared phase 1 results on the CLDN18.2x4-1BB bispecific last year, emboldening it to prioritize the asset despite the presence of a deep bench of competitors.

Now, the biotech has shared details of the human cost of its rethink. Seeking to right-size the company to reflect its focus, I-Mab completed a 27% reduction in its workforce Tuesday. I-Mab ended 2023 with 220 employees, but most worked at its now-divested China operation. The biotech had 36 employees outside of China as of the end of 2023.

Employee severance payments and other termination costs will put a $800,000 dent in I-Mab’s earnings, but the biotech expects to save about $3 million a year as a result of the changes. The statement lacks an update to I-Mab’s cash runway, which the biotech said would extend into 2027 when it disclosed the pipeline changes earlier this year.

The runway extends beyond the next two anticipated data drops on givastomig. I-Mab expects to share dose-escalation data from a phase 1b trial in the second half of 2025. The trial is assessing the bispecific in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb’s checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo and chemotherapy in patients with gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

I-Mab is aiming to share data from the dose-expansion stage of the phase 1b trial in the first half of next year. The updates will provide a clearer look at whether givastomig is differentiated from its rivals. I-Mab is pitching the bispecific as a candidate that can work in people with low levels of CLDN18.2 expression, beat the efficacy of Astellas’ Vyloy and be more tolerable than antibody-drug conjugates.