Half a 12 months after being spurned by the FDA and following deep layoffs, IO Biotech has determined to shut its doorways for good.
The Danish biotech has ceased operations and stated goodbye to its staff, C-suite and board of administrators after submitting for chapter, in line with a March 31 submitting with the Securities and Alternate Fee.
A trustee appointed by the Delaware chapter courtroom will take management of the corporate and liquidate its property.
IO’s troubles started in earnest final September, after the FDA suggested the corporate to not submit its most cancers vaccine Cylembio for approval. The company’s resolution was sparked by a part 3 fail the place Cylembio didn’t high Merck & Co.’s Keytruda at enhancing progression-free survival in unresectable or metastatic melanoma.
As a result of Cylembio’s survival mark simply barely missed statistical significance over Keytruda, IO on the time was not deterred from pursuing approval. However subsequent interactions between IO and the FDA proved unfruitful, with the corporate not disclosing the end result of a gathering scheduled for December.
As soon as the door to approval seemingly closed on Cylembio, IO responded by halving its workforce and plotting a brand new trial of the therapeutic vaccine to satisfy the regulator’s necessities. These layoffs had been adopted by consideration of even additional cuts in January, across the identical time the oncology outfit employed a monetary advisor to assist discover strategic alternate options.
On the finish of September 2025, IO had about $31 million within the financial institution. Earlier than any layoffs, that money was anticipated to final solely till the primary quarter of 2026.
IO’s shuttering comes the identical day that Lipella Prescription drugs introduced it had filed for chapter. The Pittsburgh-based biotech was growing an anti-inflammatory mouthwash to deal with symptomatic oral lichen planus, an autoimmune situation affecting mucus membranes within the mouth.
Molecular glue biotech f5 Therapeutics additionally shut down earlier this month, with the corporate’s CEO citing how “brutal” the previous few years have been for early-stage biotechs. The primary firm to be buried within the biotech graveyard this 12 months was Nido Biosciences, which determined to wind down after its small molecule for a uncommon neurological illness dissatisfied in a part 2 trial.
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