The CEO and chief scientific officer of Vyant Bio are out the door as the little-known but publicly-listed neurodegenerative biotech searches for an exit or, if all else fails, a wind-down.
The soul-searching bookends a winding journey for the biotech, which
rebranded
and transitioned from
diagnostics company
Cancer Genetics in 2021 after a
merger with StemoniX.
That came after a
failed merger attempt
with NovellusDx (now
Fore Biotherapeutics
) in 2018. In the last few years,
units
have been
sold off
and the stock price
$VYNT
has plummeted from the $30 range to penny stock territory.
As part of the strategic review, CEO and president John Roberts and CSO Robert Fremeau “agreed in principle with the Company to step down from their respective positions,” as of Friday, the company
said
. Roberts will remain on the board and CFO Andrew LaFrence will take over as CEO and president to lead the transition.
For months now, small drug developers left and right have instituted layoffs, pipeline disposals, asset sales and turned off the lights in the face of a difficult market for biotechs.
The Cherry Hill, NJ-based biotech said it will lay off workers “as soon as practical” and continue hunting for strategic alternatives “and/or execute an orderly wind down,” per a board decision from earlier this week. The layoffs will largely take place before the end of this month,
per an SEC filing
, which noted Vyant had $8.4 million at the end of January.
Per a Friday morning press release: “The Company’s decision to potentially pursue other strategic alternatives to unlock material value is based on its belief that its stock price does not reflect the fundamental value of the business.”
The biotech’s pipeline consisted of
partnerships
with
Cyclica
on CDKL5 deficiency disorder, a collaboration
with OrganoTherapeutics
on Parkinson’s disease, preclinical work with
Atomwise
and other programs. The work in
Parkinson’s
was focused on LRRK2 and GBA1, according to the biotech’s website. LRRK2 is the focus of Biogen and Denali’s BIIB122,
in a Phase III
, and was also targeted by the
now-shuttered Escape Bio
.
Just four days ago, Fremeau, the CSO, posted to LinkedIn about Vyant Bio’s “pioneering” work. He wrote the company’s pipeline included a repurposed version of donepezil, Eisai’s Alzheimer’s drug Aricept, that was poised to enter a
Phase II next month
in Australia for adults with Rett syndrome, a rare neurological disorder.
