After already halving its workforce twice since 2022, Sensei Therapeutics is forging ahead with another deep round of cuts.
The biotech on Friday said 65% of its staffers are set to leave the company. The disclosure came two weeks after the company revealed that layoffs were in the works.
Going forward, Sensei is retaining only a “small team of employees to assist in exploring strategic alternatives, maintaining compliance with regulatory and financial reporting requirements, and managing the orderly cessation of development activities," according to the Nov. 14 press release.
The company’s workforce had already been whittled down to just 14 full-time employees as of March after almost half of the biotech’s staffers were laid off last year. That decision—which also saw the company close its research site in Rockville, Maryland—was explained at the time as being necessary to keep the money pumping to the anti-VISTA monoclonal antibody solnerstotug.
The latest layoffs have been expected since the end of October, when the biotech warned of “a workforce reduction to preserve cash.” That announcement came alongside the company’s decision to wind down a phase 1/2 trial of solnerstotug due to a “careful review of future funding needs and the current capital markets environment,” despite previously arguing that the results supported moving into phase 2.
With $25 million left in the bank as of the end of September, Sensei said it continues to assess its remaining options, which range from selling or licensing its assets to winding down the company completely.
In March 2023, the biotech reported employing 28 full-time staffers. The prior year, its full-time head count was 56.
Along with the announcement of the cuts, Sensei said in its quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that its board has terminated CEO John Celebi, Chief Scientific Officer Edward van der Horst, Ph.D., and Chief Business Officer Stephanie Krebs. Effective today, the three execs have entered into six-month consulting agreements that pay $425 per hour for up to 20 hours each week.
Sensei's new president and principal executive officer is Christopher Gerry, who has served as general counsel since 2022, according to the filing. Three board members, including Celebi, have resigned from the board, and Sensei has shrunk its director count from six to three.
The biotech expects cash expenditures of $1.6 million related to the latest cuts, according to Friday's SEC filing. Even after Sensei makes the cuts, the company "expects to incur additional losses in the future to fund its operations during the exploration of strategic alternatives."
Sensei went public in 2021 in a $133 million IPO. At the time, the biotech’s pipeline was headed up by a clinical-stage vaccine that targeted the tumor antigen aspartate beta hydroxylase to treat head and neck cancer. However, within months, the company had discontinued development of that asset after viewing trial data.
Eric Sagonowsky contributed to this report.