As it awaits regulatory clearance for its Tumor Treating Fields technology in non-small cell lung cancer—and in the wake of the technology’s recent trial failure in ovarian disease—Novocure is narrowing its workforce and its pipeline to help conserve funds.
In total, the company is aiming to reduce operating expenses by about $60 million, according to a Tuesday announcement, with layoffs affecting around 200 employees.
Those savings will ideally give Novocure some wiggle room as it continues to fund research into other applications of TTFields, while also helping to “maintain financial health and flexibility as we position our company for future profitability,” according to CFO Ashley Cordova. The noninvasive TTFields technology generates high-frequency electric fields and sends them through a patient’s skin with an aim of interrupting cancer cells’ division and reproduction.
As of the company’s third-quarter earnings report last month, it had racked up operating costs of nearly $461 million for the first nine months of the year, almost 25% higher than where they stood a year before. In that time, Novocure posted a net loss of close to $160 million, well above the $92 million loss it calculated for all of last year.
The reductions, in part, will result in about 13% of Novocure’s current workforce being let go. The company noted that field-based commercial and medical employees will be “minimally affected,” implying that internal employees will bear the brunt of the cuts.
The layoffs are expected to rack up one-time costs of approximately $7 million, which will be reflected in Novocure’s fourth-quarter earnings.
“Decisions like these are deeply personal and challenging, because of the impact on our employees and their families,” CEO Asaf Danziger said in the announcement. “To those departing Novocure, I want to express my sincere gratitude for your hard work. Your contributions have influenced the lives of many cancer patients and your legacy will forever be intertwined with Novocure.”
Meanwhile, the company will also narrow its pipeline, focusing its resources only on those indications that it has deemed to have the greatest potential for success, according to the release. TTFields already has regulatory approvals in newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma and in mesothelioma.
Next up, Novocure is aiming to secure approval for the technology as a therapeutic option for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer that has continued to progress in spite of treatment with platinum-based chemotherapies. Phase 3 study results shared earlier this year showed that adding TTFields to those patients’ regimens could extend survival by at least a few months, and several more for patients simultaneously being treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Novocure has already submitted those data as part of a CE mark application for the indication and plans to do the same in a premarket approval submission to the FDA by the end of this year, per the third-quarter report.
Also on deck are the upcoming readouts of phase 3 trials in brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer and in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Results from both studies are expected to be ready to share next year.
Meanwhile, Novocure is shortening the list of other works in progress, with its development investments now focused on just three other randomized clinical trials: two in newly diagnosed glioblastoma and one more in NSCLC.
Noticeably missing from the slimmed-down docket is platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, where TTFields recently logged a phase 3 trial failure. Results of the INNOVATE-3 study shared in August showed that adding TTFields to a treatment regimen of the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel didn’t noticeably extend survival compared to those treated only with paclitaxel.
In the wake of the disappointing results, Novocure said at the time that researchers would continue to look into the data to identify subgroups of patients who may have experienced more promising reactions to the TTFields treatment.