Cell therapy company lays off half its staff| STAT

Arsenal Bio, one of the few cell therapy companies that was able to raise significant capital amid a prolonged downturn for the field, laid off 50% of its staff, a spokesperson confirmed to STAT.

The company, launched in 2019, raised $325 million last November and likely took in more cash three months later, when Bristol Myers Squibb licensed an experimental cell therapy developed under a longstanding collaboration.

It was a rare bright spot in a field that many investors had seemed to lose faith in. After an initial wave of CAR-T therapies showed powerful results in blood cancers and won approval, venture firms whipped up a dizzying list of startups that promised to create new cell therapies that were either less onerous to manufacture, more effective at treating blood cancers, or capable of shutting down solid tumors like lung or breast cancer.