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Due to the job cuts, Kronos Bios anticipates charges of approximately $1.8m linked to cash severance payments in Q4 2023. Credit: 3rdtimeluckystudio via Shutterstock.

Kronos Bio has announced plans to reduce its workforce by 19% in a bid to allow more resources to be allocated to its drugs KB-0742 and lanraplenib, as well as extend its cash flow until 2026.

Due to the downsizing, the company anticipates charges of approximately $1.8m linked to cash severance payments in Q4 2023. The biotech also expects charges of up to $300,000 in cash payments for health benefit reimbursements over the next six months.

This announcement follows the recent departure of Yasir Al-Wakeel, the company’s CFO and head of corporate development on 15 September.

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The US-based company released positive preliminary safety and efficacy results from a Phase I/II (NCT04718675) trial for KB-0742, last year. The dose-escalation study demonstrated that the drug had “on-mechanism single agent anti-tumor activity” in heavily pretreated patients, as per the December 2022 press release. Furthermore, the drug showed a dose-proportional exposure and a 24-hour plasma half-life.

KB-0742 is in development for transcriptionally addicted solid tumours, including small cell lung cancer, sarcomas, and MYC-dependent tumours, such as triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The oral drug prevents malignancies by inhibiting cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9), a common cancer-causing pathway when dysregulated.

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Lanraplenib is an oral SYK inhibitor drug for acute myeloid leukaemia, currently being investigated in a Phase Ib/II trial (NCT05028751). The biotech is studying its use in combination with Astellas Pharma’s Xospata (gilteritinib fumurate).

Kronos joins a group of several biotechs that have chosen to cut employees this year amidst a difficult economic environment. Galera Therapeutics, Kinnate Bio, NexImmune and many other companies have fired workers in order to funnel more money into their clinical development pipelines in the last few months.

In a November 2 press release, Kronos Bio CEO Dr Norbert Bischofberger said: “By streamlining our operations and extending our runway, we best position the company to optimally fund our KB-0742 clinical studies while continuing to focus on the clinical development of lanraplenib, the advancement of our maturing discovery projects, and our collaboration with Genentech.”