EyePoint to halve workforce after experimental drug fails second late-stage trial

Oct 19 (Reuters) – EyePoint on Monday said it would cut about 53% of its workforce and stop studies of its experimental drug for an age-related vision disease after a second late-stage trial failed.

Its shares tanked more than 75% in premarket trading. 

• The trial tested EyePoint’s Duravyu against Regeneron’s blockbuster eye medicine Eylea in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older adults

• While patients given Duravyu showed improved vision, the drug failed to prove as effective as the standard treatment in preserving eyesight, EyePoint said

• The company had 214 full-time US employees as of February 27, according to a regulatory filing

• The setback follows a similar failure in August, when Duravyu missed the main goal in an identical late-stage study

• JonesTrading analyst Debanjana Chatterjee said she does not “see an immediate regulatory path forward in wet AMD despite strong secondary endpoint results,” following the failures

• EyePoint expects reducing the workforce and ending trials to save about $30 million annually, despite roughly $9 million in severance charges

• It added it would shift focus to developing Duravyu for diabetic macular edema, another retinal disease, with late-stage trial results expected in late 2027

(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Joyjeet Das)