Bolt Biotherapeutics is reshuffling to cut costs and extend its cash runway to the second half of 2026.
The California biotech said Tuesday afternoon that it is dropping its lead oncology asset, as well as staging an executive team revamp and slashing its employee count in half.
Bolt will cease development of an immune-stimulating antibody conjugate (ISAC), dubbed trastuzumab imbotolimod or BDC-1001, after the company found it was unlikely to meet a predefined success criteria. The candidate was in a Phase 1/2 trial in solid tumors, but had lackluster results in 2021. BDC-1001 comprises a HER2-targeting biosimilar of Herceptin conjugated with a TLR7/8 agonist.
Randy SchatzmanThe pipeline cut triggered a change in leadership, with Bolt appointing chief financial officer Willie Quinn as its new CEO effective Wednesday. Quinn will replace Randy Schatzman, who had been CEO since 2019. Schatzman will move to an advisory role at the biotech.
Chief medical officer Edith Perez has also stepped down.
Bolt is also planning to lay off half of its workforce, a move that could see it incur $3 million to $4 million in near-term costs. The layoffs should be complete by the end of the year. The biotech had 100 full-time employees in December.
The company’s shares $BOLT dropped by 30% to $0.93 premarket Wednesday. It ended the first quarter with just $95 million in cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and prepaid expenses and other current assets, according to the Tuesday release.
With these changes, Bolt said it will focus on advancing a Phase 1 cancer candidate, named BDC-3042, as well as its next-generation preclinical ISAC programs. BDC-3042 targets Dectin-2, an immune activating receptor expressed by tumor-associated macrophages. The biotech expects to provide an update on Phase 1 enrollment and BDC-3042’s safety profile in the second half of the year.
The company said the changes should not affect its preclinical work with partners Genmab and Toray Industries, who will continue to fund these programs with undisclosed targets through to early clinical development.