California biotech NGM Bio is slimming down as the company pivots focus, shedding around 75% of staff, pausing development of a phase 2 liver disease asset and halting further investment in discovery and preclinical work, the company confirmed in a statement to Fierce Biotech.
The company’s CEO David Woodhouse, Ph.D., has also voluntarily decided to step down, with Vice President of Corporate Development Diana Peng Bockus stepping up to take his place.
The layoffs, which will take effect June 30, affect 85 employees and include “nearly all research positions,” the company said.
NGM’s primary focus going forward is the GDF15/GFRAL inhibitor NGM120, which the company is developing in the pregnancy-related nausea condition hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) and cancer cachexia. A phase 2 trial for NGM120 in HG kicked off in February, while NGM plans to begin a phase 2 study in cancer cachexia soon, the company said.
“HG and cancer cachexia are both devastating conditions with profound unmet need, and we are committed to advancing potential solutions for patients,” NGM said in the statement.
Focusing on NGM120 means setting aside aldafermin, an engineered FGF19 hormone with a troubled history. The asset had previously failed trials for the liver diseases metabolic-dysfunction associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), though the asset did bounce back in MASH in a second phase 2b trial.
Aldafermin’s PSC data were enough for NGM to garner an orphan drug designation for it from the FDA, and the firm raised a $122 million series A in July 2024 to fund a registrational PSC trial for the drug candidate alongside the HG trial for NGM120.
That series A was led by venture capital firm The Column Group, which had previously taken NGM private as part of a $135 million buyout following a 2023 that saw NGM lay off a third of staff and watch its stock price plunge.
About six months after the series A, NGM offloaded a phase 2-ready MASH asset to VC firm KdT Ventures in a deal worth up to $608 million. KdT formed a new company to pivot the acquired asset into an undisclosed, non-metabolic rare disease indication.
The Bay Area biotech’s pipeline also includes two phase 1 trials of novel antibodies in combination with Merck & Co.’s blockbuster oncology therapy Keytruda for solid tumors.