Black Diamond Cuts 30% Of Its Workforce, Discontinues Drug From its 'MasterKey' Pipeline

Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc BDTX is realigning its resources to extend its cash runway into the third quarter of 2024.
The Company has discontinued the development of BDTX-189, an orally available small-molecule inhibitor that targets mutations of EGFR and HER2 kinases.
Black Diamond is doing away with the asset because of the “rapid evolution of the treatment landscape in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring either EGFR or HER2 Exon 20 insertion mutations,”
The Company will lay off 30% of its workforce, with a cash balance of $209.8 million as of December 31, 2021, BDTX expects to fund itself into 2024.
BDTX will focus on BDTX-1535 and BDTX-4933 and other discovery efforts across its MAP platform.
The first one is an inhibitor of EGFR mutations in glioblastoma and non-small cell lung cancer.
The Phase I study kicked off in January, and an update is slated for the second half of 2023.
Meanwhile, BDTX-4933 is a CNS-penetrant BRAF inhibitor. The Company initiated investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies in Q1 of 2022, and IND submission is expected in the first half of 2023.
Price Action: BDTX shares are down 1.65% at $2.68 during the market session on the last check Monday.