RLY-2608

iStock, simplehappyart Relay Therapeutics is cutting its workforce to help streamline its research organization as it looks to complete its first large-scale, pivotal clinical trial. To help streamline its research organization, Relay Therapeutics will lay off about 10% of its workforce, affecting about 30 employees, a company spokesperson told BioSpace in an emailed statement. The spokesperson did not specify when the cuts are effective for the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based clinical-stage precision medicine biotech. The streamlining process has focused on “rationalizing the tools and on streamlining the teams to enable them to be more efficient,” and its final changes include the layoffs, according to the statement. Fierce Biotech reported that Relay also had layoffs in July that affected less than 5% of employees at the company, which it noted employed about 300 people at that time. Fierce also reported that the streamlining process is meant to save the biotech about $50 million a year. That savings is noteworthy given the biotech had a net loss of $92.2 million for the second quarter of 2024 and reported in an August SEC filing that it’s had significant operating losses since inception. The company launched in 2016. The latest layoffs come two months after Relay noted in the SEC filing that it’s never successfully completed any large-scale, pivotal clinical trials and “may be unable to do so for any product candidates we develop.” That said, the company also announced at that time that it had started a global clinical trial collaboration with Pfizer for combination development of RLY-2608 + fulvestrant + atirmociclib (CDK4i) in certain metastatic breast cancers. In September, Relay announced a win for RLY-2608, noting that interim Phase I/II data for the experimental treatment had elicited progression-free survival in heavily pretreated patients. In a statement at that time, Don Bergstrom, the company’s president of R&D, said the findings suggest that RLY-2608 could offer a level of benefit to patients not previously possible with existing nonselective medicines while also having significantly less toxicity. Relay planned to “move quickly” to engage with regulators and arrive at a design for a pivotal trial it hopes to start next year.

Relay Therapeutics is laying off 10% of its staff, or about 30 employees, in an additional round of job cuts after a smaller downsizing in July. A spokesperson for the biotech confirmed the layoffs in a statement to Endpoints News Thursday, saying the decision centered on “rationalizing the tools and on streamlining the teams to enable them to be more efficient.” There have been no new program discontinuations that precipitated the move, a spokesperson said. The new layoffs come less than a month after Relay brought in $200 million in new capital through a public offering. The raise was tied to encouraging data from its pan-mutant PI3Kα inhibitor, RLY-2608, showing that the treatment had a “clinically meaningful” improvement in progression-free survival for patients with breast cancer when combined with fulvestrant. Following the Sept. 9 readout, Relay’s shares $RLAY jumped more than 50%. But those gains have since vanished. It hinted at the coming cuts with that announcement, saying there was “ongoing streamlining of the research organization.” Earlier this summer, Genentech announced that it was handing back an SHP2 program to Relay after investing $120 million in the asset, which Relay said it would not continue to develop. Relay laid off about 5% of the team shortly after, though they were not a result of the axed collaboration, according to a Relay spokesperson. The reductions come as the company is widening its pipeline outside of cancer, a move that will largely take shape next year. One such decision is aiming RLY-2608 at vascular malformations, defined by abnormal blood vessel development, with a clinical trial set to start in the first quarter of 2025. Relay also launched a preclinical program for Fabry disease and plans to launch a human trial in the second half of 2025.