Genomic medicines startup Ensoma is shuttering its Copenhagen site and also eliminating “a very small number” of roles at its Boston office, a spokesperson confirmed to Endpoints News.
Multiple employees from the Copenhagen lab have recently posted about the closure on LinkedIn. Ensoma, which just turned five years old, assumed control of the location through its acquisition last year of Twelve Bio.
The Twelve Bio deal was announced at the time of Ensoma’s $85 million financing in January 2023. Founded in 2019 and based on research at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Twelve Bio was working on engineering CRISPR-Cas12a into “wholly novel sequences with unique properties useful for a range of DNA editing strategies.”
Boston-based Ensoma is working on in vivo gene editing of blood and immune cells to make off-the-shelf therapies that could potentially be safer than ex vivo cell therapies.
“Since acquiring Twelve Bio, we’ve made significant progress in advancing next-generation base editing technology. With the successful completion of essential work by our Copenhagen team, we have identified opportunities to streamline operations and extend our operational runway,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. That includes work in CGD, solid tumors and sickle cell disease.
Jim BurnsThe spokesperson declined to disclose how many staffers are being laid off. Ensoma had about 90 employees as of May, CEO Jim Burns told Endpoints at the time. He said the company would add a chief business officer, look for more partnerships after Takeda backed out of a pact, and look at more financing around early 2025.
“The idea of in vivo gene editing of immune cells is a great idea. It’s based on really good science, too, so it could work,” Burns told Endpoints in May. “But that’s not sufficient. You have to be able to execute” to turn it into a therapeutic product, he said.
Ensoma is one of multiple genetic medicines startups to downsize or prioritize its pipeline in recent quarters, alongside Prime Medicine, Arbor Biotechnologies and others. Burns joined Ensoma after his last biotech, gene therapy company Locanabio, shuttered last winter.
The biotech plans to file an IND in the first half of next year for chronic granulomatous disease, according to its website.