After raising $213 million in 2023—one of the year’s largest private biotech rounds—Tome Biosciences is making cuts.
“Despite our clear scientific progress, investor sentiment has shifted dramatically across the gene editing space, particularly for preclinical companies,” a Tome spokesperson told Fierce Biotech in an emailed statement. “Given this, the company is operating at reduced capacity, maintaining core expertise, and we are in ongoing confidential conversations with multiple parties to explore strategic options.”
The company didn’t answer questions about how many, if any, employees will be affected by the changes. Furthermore, details about possible changes to Tome’s pipeline were not disclosed.
The gene editing biotech’s shrinkage was first reported by Stat. One person with knowledge of the situation told the publication that Tome is seeking a buyer, while another anonymous source told Stat the biotech is still considering several options to keep running.
Tome unveiled at the end of last year with a whopping $213 million in a combined series A and B round. The biotech, with financial backers including a16z, Arch Venture Partners and GV, touted a plan to welcome in a “new era of genomic medicines based on programmable genomic integration (PGI).”
Tome in-licensed the tech from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. PGI is designed to enable the insertion of any DNA sequence into any programmed genomic location, according to Tome. The science combines the site-specificity of the CRISPR/Cas9 approach without needing double-strand DNA breaks.
The biotech, helmed by CEO Rahul Kakkar, M.D., set out with plans to develop gene therapies for monogenic liver diseases and cell therapies for autoimmune diseases.
Shortly after publicly debuting, Tome snapped up DNA editing company Replace Therapeutics for $65 million in cash and near-term milestone payments.
About two weeks after the acquisition, Tome teamed up with RNA-focused Genevant Sciences in a rare liver disorder deal. The new biotech offered Genevant up to $114 million in biobucks to combine its PGI tech with the Roivant offshoot’s lipid nanoparticle science in hopes of developing an in vivo gene editing treatment for a monogenic liver disorder.
More recently, the biotech shared preclinical data at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy annual meeting in May. It was there that Tome revealed its lead programs to be a gene therapy for phenylketonuria and a cell therapy for renal autoimmune diseases.
Investments in the cell & gene therapy space have slowed of late, with leading biotechs’ assets requiring more time to advance, according to PitchBook.
Major pharmas have gravitated licensing efforts to late-stage assets, with a particular focus on antibody-based therapies and antibody-drug conjugates, while cell and gene therapy partnerships declined in aggregate value, according to a July report from J.P. Morgan.