{"id":353631,"date":"2023-11-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/flagship-backed-microbiome-biotech-evelo-to-shut-down\/"},"modified":"2023-11-23T03:30:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T08:30:13","slug":"flagship-backed-microbiome-biotech-evelo-to-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/flagship-backed-microbiome-biotech-evelo-to-shut-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Flagship-backed microbiome biotech Evelo to shut down","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
Evelo Biosciences, a biotechnology company launched by Flagship Pioneering to develop microbiome drugs, is shutting down, according to a regulatory filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n The move follows setbacks for the company, which was testing its lead drug candidate for inflammatory skin conditions. That drug failed the main goal<\/a> of a Phase 2 trial, data announced Feb. 1 showed. As a result, Evelo laid off 48 people<\/a> in January, and let go of another unspecified number of employees in the second quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter seeking potential funding sources and other ways to continue to operate Evelo\u2019s business, Evelo has not found a viable alternative to the dissolution,\u201d the company wrote in a Monday filing notifying investors of its plans to shut down. Evelo\u2019s website now redirects to its SEC filings.<\/p>\n Evelo had approximately $17.3 million in cash and cash equivalents<\/a> on hand as of Sept. 30. It raised $25.5 million via a private stock placement in July.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s shares, which trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol \u201cEVLO<\/a>,\u201d have lost almost all of their value since Evelo\u2019s Wall Street debut in 2018.<\/p>\n Evelo studied its lead drug candidate, EDP1815, in Phase 2 trials for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. In April, the company halted work on EDP1815 in atopic dermatitis and turned its focus to a second experimental drug, EDP2939, which was also in testing for psoriasis. EDP2939 missed its goal in a trial readout in October and Evelo stopped development.<\/p>\n Evelo also previously researched medicines for COVID-19 and cancer.<\/p>\n Founded in 2015, Evelo licensed a cancer therapy<\/a> from the University of Chicago and brokered a deal with the Mayo Clinic to develop anti-inflammatory drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many other biotech companies have announced layoffs or business restructurings in what continues to be a difficult funding market for drugmakers. More than 130 biotechs, including Evelo, have let go of employees this year, according to data compiled by BioPharma Dive.<\/p>\n Other notable companies that have shuttered since the beginning of the year include another former Flagship startup, Rubius Therapeutics<\/a>, and gene therapy developer LocanaBio<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite the market turbulence, the biopharma sector still appears to be growing. An August analysis from the investment firm Stifel<\/a> found that employment at mid-sized and large pharmaceutical and biotech companies is still increasing, though employment numbers are down among small drugmakers.<\/p>\n Evelo Biosciences, a biotechnology company launched by Flagship Pioneering to develop microbiome drugs, is shutting down, according to a regulatory filing. The move follows setbacks for the company, which was testing its lead drug candidate for inflammatory skin conditions. That drug failed the main goal of a Phase 2 trial, data announced Feb. 1 showed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":2,"featured_media":353634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"acf":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353633,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353631\/revisions\/353633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n