On the heels Kronos Bio’s decision to can its last remaining clinical asset earlier this month, the company said it would roll out “significant expense reduction strategies” to buy itself more time. Now, at least one aspect of the struggling biotech’s cost-cutting maneuver is coming into focus.
Kronos will lay off some 83% of its workforce by the end of the year as it continues to explore options to stay afloat, including “possible business combinations” or the divesture of remaining preclinical assets, according to a Wednesday release.
As of March 11, the company employed 62 full-time staffers, according to its annual SEC filing.
The latest round of cuts at the company follows two other staff reductions announced since November of last year. As was the case with those previous cuts, Kronos’ C-suite isn’t immune to the shakeup, either.
In fact, the biotech’s president and CEO, Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D., is stepping down from his post on Dec. 3. He will remain on Kronos’ board and continue to “be available to the company as an advisor,” Kronos explained.
Taking up the reins from Bischofberger as president and interim CEO will be Deborah Knobelman, Ph.D., who has served as the biotech’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer since June. In her new role, Knobelman will operate as Kronos’ principal executive, financial and accounting officer, the company said in its release.
“It was a difficult decision to implement a reduction in force as we evaluate strategic alternatives for the company,” Knobelman said in a statement. “We thank our departing employees for their efforts, commitment to patients and contributions to Kronos Bio.”
Kronos Bio is focused on developing small-molecule drugs for cancers and other diseases caused by deregulated transcription.
In a blow to those efforts, the company in mid-November said it was shelving its last remaining clinical asset, the CDK9 inhibitor istisociclib, after reviewing troubling safety signals from a phase 1/2 trial in platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
Specifically, five patients out of a cohort of seven who received an 80 mg dose of the drug displayed “neurological events as characterized by involuntary movements, confusion and hallucinations ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 3,” Kronos said at the time.
The side effect scare prompted Kronos to begin exploring business alternatives, with the company highlighting the potential to partner its two preclinical lysine acetyltransferase (KAT) inhibitor programs: KB-9558 for myeloma and HPV-driven cancer and KB-7898, which is being aimed at Sjögren’s disease.
The biotech, which ended September with $124.9 million in cash and equivalents, also warned that “significant expense reduction strategies” were on the way.
The latest cut to Kronos’ employee roster marks the third round of layoffs in roughly a year.
Early last November, the company said it would hand out pink slips to 19% of its employees in a “difficult but necessary” decision to pave a longer cash runway.
Then, in March, Kronos telegraphed another staff reduction, this time impacting 21% of its remaining workforce. The move was undertaken in a bid to further extend the company’s cash runway into the second half of 2026, Kronos said earlier this year—as well as to prioritize clinical development of istisociclib, which was previously coded as KB-0742.
Meanwhile, in a separate executive shuffle, Kronos in late January said it had eliminated the roles of chief medical officer Jorge DiMartino, M.D., chief scientific officer Christopher Dinsmore, Ph.D. and Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Barbara Kosacz. Under the plan, the company also put forward a quartet of SVP positions to oversee R&D, clinical development, corporate strategy and portfolio management, and corporate operations and legal.