Black Diamond Therapeutics has deprioritized one of its two clinical-stage lung cancer contenders, jettisoned two executives and alluded to further layoffs in order to keep the money flowing to its lead candidate.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech has been evaluating BDTX-4933, a brain-penetrant oral inhibitor of oncogenic alterations in KRAS, NRAS and BRAF, in a phase 1 trial primarily of patients with KRAS mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). But Black Diamond is now “actively seeking partnerships as it deprioritizes its BDTX-4933 program in RAF/RAS-mutant solid tumors,” the company revealed in a post-market release Oct. 7.
“Black Diamond has also taken steps to optimize operations, including a reduction in force, while retaining core drug development and management expertise,” the biotech added.
This restructuring has included offloading Chief Business Officer and Chief Financial Officer Fang Ni as well as Chief People Officer Elizabeth Montgomery. In their place, Erika Jones, senior vice president of finance and principal accounting officer, has been appointed principal financial officer.
Fierce Biotech has asked Black Diamond how many other staff are likely to be affected by the workforce changes.
The combined savings from the workforce and pipeline reordering should fund operations into the second quarter of 2026, said Black Diamond, which ended June with $123 million to hand in cash and equivalents.
Black Diamond has been developing so-called MasterKey therapies focused on genetically defined cancers in patients with few treatment options. The company’s investment will now be channeled to BDTX-1535, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) designed to inhibit EGFR mutations in NSCLC.
The drug reported interim phase 2 data last month showing a preliminary 36% objective response rate in 22 evaluable patients with previously treated NSCLC with nonclassical driver mutations or with acquired C797S resistance mutations.
The first quarter of next year is shaping up to be a big few months for BDTX-1535, with initial readouts from a phase 2 trial in EGFR-mutant NSCLC as well as updated results from a phase 2 study in recurrent NSCLC that the company hopes will firm up plans for a registrational trial in that indication. The biotech has also been investigating the drug’s potential against glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
“BDTX-1535 is a well-tolerated oral TKI with the potential to benefit patients with EGFRm NSCLC across multiple lines of therapy,” Black Diamond CEO Mark Velleca, M.D., Ph.D., said in the release. “We remain focused on advancing BDTX-1535 and presenting additional phase 2 data in Q1 2025.”
It’s not the first time Black Diamond has looked to reduce its workforce, with the biotech laying off 30% of its staff back in 2022 as part of its refocus on BDTX-1535 and BDTX-4933.