What happened
Shares of uniQure (QURE -1.30%) were up more than 8% as of 1 p.m. after rising as much as 14% earlier in the day. So far this year, the biotech stock is down more than 70%.
So what
The gene-editing therapy company said it plans to cut back staff and programs to focus on more promising therapies in its pipeline. The biggest move is that uniQure said it is cutting back 28% of its workforce that is not connected to its manufacturing obligations regarding Hemgenix, a one-time gene therapy for the treatment of adults with hemophilia B that the company manufactures for CSL Behring.
That will mean a cost savings of $180 million, pushing out the company's cash runway into the second quarter of 2027. In the short term, though, the restructuring will mean $2.3 million in costs that will be reflective in the fourth quarter.
The company also said it would discontinue half of its pipeline projects and streamline its operations.
The moves are meant to allow the company to focus on Huntington's disease therapy AMT-130 as well as refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy therapy AMT-260, Fabry disease therapy AMT-191, and SOD1 gene-mutated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatment AMT-162. The company said that as part of the reorganization, Chief Business Officer Ricardo Dolmetsch will be leaving the company.
Now what
The company has been consistently unprofitable, except for 2021, so some changes were obviously needed. The S&P 600 index delisted uniQure from its index on Sept. 18. As of the second quarter, the company said it had $628.6 million in cash. While revenue (mostly contract manufacturing revenue) was $2.4 million, compared to $500,000 in the same period a year ago, uniQure reported a net loss of $68.5 million after losing only $39.1 million in the same quarter a year ago.
