The neoantigen immunotherapy company is a casualty of slow R&D progress and a squeeze on biotech finance – and more firms are in the firing line.

Sio Gene, Genocea, Solid Biosciences, Saniona and Black Diamond join First Wave, Zosano, Vallon, Finch, Magenta, ProQR and Imara on the growing list of biopharma firms reducing headcount to make their cash last until valuations return to a level that may support new fundraising. 

Heading into the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, pharmas have been focusing on discovery alliances. J&J’s deals look into novel tissue-targeted drugs, ionic liquid delivery technology and cancer vaccine R&D. Lilly teams with Entos on novel methods for delivering neurology drugs.

Public Company Edition: iTeos, Annexon, Nurix and Inozyme went public on 23 July and now CureVac has added its name to the IPO queue for what could be a large offering. Also, BioNTech raises $511.5m as COVID-19 vaccine progresses and PTC gets $650m from sale of risdiplam royalties.