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Tango Therapeutics cuts nearly one-fifth of staff

Republished By Plato
Republished By Plato

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Oncology drugmaker Tango Therapeutics has cut about 20% of its staff, following a year in which it twice trimmed its pipeline of experimental cancer drugs.

The company “made the difficult decision” to reduce spending on preclinical research and lay off approximately 30 employees, Tango CEO Barbara Weber confirmed Monday to BioPharma Dive. The company had 155 full-time staff as of Dec. 31.

“In light of the extremely challenging financial markets and our strong conviction in the value of our clinical programs, we, like so many others, have been forced to take steps to extend our cash runway and focus our resources on our PRMT5 programs,” Weber said, referring in a statement to its lead drug target.

Last May, the company discontinued a drug dubbed TNG348 after people enrolled in its Phase 1/2 trial developed abnormalities in tests of liver function. Tango had planned to study the drug in conjunction with the PARP inhibitor Lynparza.

Then, in November, Tango deprioritized one of three drugs it was then developing to block an enzyme called PRMT5. One of the two it advanced, TNG462, is now its lead compound and is being tested in people with certain pancreatic and lung cancers. Early clinical data from a Phase 1/2 trial showed the drug has a safety and tolerability profile that compares favorably with competitors, Tango has claimed.

PRMT5 inhibition emerged as a therapeutic approach in the 2010s. Pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb and Bayer have PRMT5 programs in development, as do several other firms.

Tango has a long-standing partnership with Gilead, and is also collaborating with Eli Lilly. The biotech is testing a second PRMT5 program, codenamed TNG456, together with Lilly’s drug Verzenio in people with the brain cancer glioblastoma.

Last year, Gilead licensed a Tango drug discovery program for $12 million, according to the biotech’s annual report, adding to the substantial payments Tango has received from Gilead since 2018.

Tango had about $258 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term securities as of Dec. 31, it said in February, at which time it expected its financial runway would last into 2026.

Shares in Tango, which raised $353 million when it went public via a so-called SPAC deal in 2021, have zig-zagged over the past four years. At Monday’s close, the stock traded at just over $1 per share.

A number of notable biotechs have restructured and laid off staff so far in 2025, among them IGM Biosciences, Intellia Therapeutics and Cargo Therapeutics. Their troubles are part and parcel of the broader challenges facing biotech, which has seen investment flow away from the sector. New worries brought on by Trump administration policies on tariffs and federal health funding haven’t helped matters, either.

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