Just over a year after going public, Turnstone Biologics is axing staff, adjusting its leadership team and changing its pipeline focus to extend its cash runway for another two years.
The San Diego biotech is reducing its headcount by around 60%, according to a Friday release. The terminations should be complete by the end of the year and will cost $2.3 million in severance-related fees. The drugmaker had 82 full-time employees at the end of June, according to an SEC filing.
Separately, several members of Turnstone’s executive team are also stepping down, including interim CMO Michael Burgess, who is retiring, and CFO Venkat Ramanan. The company’s interim chief technology officer, Vijay Chiruvolu, is shifting to an advisory role, while business chief Saryah Azmat has been promoted to chief operating officer.
Turnstone is shifting resources away from its preclinical work to focus on advancing its Phase 1 tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy asset, TIDAL-01. The candidate is in several studies in patients with colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer and uveal melanoma. The next milestone is a data update in the first half of next year.
These moves should help Turnstone finance its activities through the second quarter of 2026, the company said. The biotech had just $62.4 million in cash, equivalents and short-term investments at the end of June.
In August, the drugmaker released data in four metastatic microsatellite stable colorectal cancer patients showing TIDAL-01 achieved a 25% overall response rate and 50% disease control rate.
At the time, Leerink analysts said they were “encouraged” by the responses but questioned “the extent of TIDAL-01 contribution to the benefit” because the patients were also receiving chemotherapy-based bridging treatment and short courses of immunotherapy. “Maintaining a 25% response rate in substantially more patients…would meaningfully increase our enthusiasm into a necessary financing round,” the analysts added.
Turnstone debuted on the public markets in July last year with a $75 million IPO. The biotech had had a tough few years prior to that, losing key partnerships with AbbVie and Takeda. Turnstone’s stock $TSBX plummeted around 82% year to date.