Pink slips have followed the green light at Entrada Therapeutics. Weeks after the FDA lifted a more than two-year-long hold, the biotech has set out plans to reduce its workforce by 20% and prioritize its clinical Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) candidates and key preclinical programs.
The FDA put ENTR-601-44, an exon skipping DMD therapy, on hold in December 2022. Entrada finally got the hold lifted in February this year. The biotech celebrated the regulatory action by setting out plans to start a phase 1b trial of the candidate in the first half of 2026. In parallel, Entrada is advancing treatments for DMD patients amenable to three other forms of exon skipping toward the clinic.
Entrada has reshaped its plan around the four DMD candidates. Starting this Friday, the biotech plans to step up hiring to support global DMD trials and start laying off people in “select research areas.” Entrada said the changes will cut the size of its workforce by around 20%. The biotech had 183 full-time employees as of Feb. 20, 144 of whom worked in R&D.
The slimmed-down company will focus on the 44, 45, 50 and 51 exon skipping DMD candidates, ocular programs and “maturing platform investments.” Entrada expects to “substantially” complete the changes by the end of the second quarter and incur costs of around $2 million, mainly from severance payments and healthcare benefits.
Entrada’s cash runway was unaffected by the head count reduction. In February, the biotech predicted the $420 million it had at the end of last year would support operations into the second quarter of 2027. The runway ends in the same quarter under the new plan. Entrada said the changes “will enable it to balance its research, development and commercial readiness needs” while maintaining its cash.
The runway covers a key period for Entrada's attempt to establish itself as a leader in intracellular drug delivery. The biotech has created peptides to get drugs with intracellular targets across cell membranes. Applied to DMD, the approach could increase levels of dystrophin, the protein that is lacking in patients, in key muscles such as the heart.