Precision medicines biotech Frontier Medicines is leaving behind an unknown number of staffers as it refocuses resources to optimize operations.
The California-based company is streamlining its operations “for greater efficiency, focusing resources where they will have the greatest impact,” a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech in a Feb. 5 email. Frontier declined to share what percentage of its workforce would be impacted.
“These changes, including organizational reductions, are critical to ensuring we remain positioned and well-capitalized to deliver on the potential of our deep pipeline with multiple upcoming milestones,” the spokesperson added. “These steps reflect tough but necessary decisions, ensuring we can continue to advance our mission of delivering transformative therapies to patients.”
The biotech’s lead asset, an oral KRAS G12C dual inhibitor dubbed FMC-376, is currently being tested in a phase 1/2 solid tumor trial. The study launched in February 2024, with 400 patients expected to be enrolled, according to ClinicalTrials.gov.
“With our lead asset advancing in a phase 1/2 trial and additional pipeline programs rapidly moving toward the clinic, our platform is now validated, fully operational and operating at scale,” the spokesperson said.
Frontier’s drug development platform combines covalent chemistry and machine learning. The biotech is helmed by CEO and co-founder Chris Varma, Ph.D., who said at the time that Frontier’s $80 million series C raised in February 2024 was “one of the hardest financings I've ever done.”
Part of the difficulty was selling investors on how Frontier and its dual-inhibiting KRAS G12C asset were different from its competitors—mainly Mirati Therapeutics, which was snapped up by Bristol Myers Squibb around the same time.
Frontier did not respond to Fierce’s questions this morning about future fundraising plans.