GreenLight Culls 25% of Staff in Pivot to Near-Term Commercial Programs
As part of a realignment, GreenLight Biosciences is cutting staff by about 25%, the company announced Wednesday. Under the restructuring, GreenLight is pivoting its focus to programs that are closer to commercialization.
Boston-based GreenLight is focused on developing RNA products for human, plant and animal health. The company’s Human Health pipeline is primarily focused on RNA vaccines for COVID-19, seasonal influenza and shingles. The Plant Health pipeline ranges from protecting honeybees to fresh produce and large-scale crops.
The major part of the company’s restructuring involves integrating its platform team into the respective units for human health and plant health. This is where the 25% staff reduction is occurring.
As part of the restructuring, GreenLight is moving away from early-stage research programs. These include a gene therapy program for sickle cell disease and its antibody therapy and supra-seasonal flu vaccines.
The job cuts are expected to create savings of about $13 million in direct employee costs in 2023. GreenLight also expects direct and indirect cost savings from other areas of the restructuring.
“Our goals, ambition and mission remain unchanged as we hone the focus of our work to current market conditions,” stated Andrey Zarur, CEO of GreenLight. “The integration and streamlining of teams will help extend our runway and allow us to better focus on our near-term value drivers for human health and plant health.
BioSpace has reached out to the company for comment. There was no response as of press time.
On August 1, GreenLight and partner Samsung Biologics reported they had successfully completed the first commercial-scale engineering run for their mRNA production partnership focused on COVID-19 vaccines. The companies entered the strategic partnership in late 2021.
On the green side of the business, GreenLight is planning for regulatory submission of its product targeting Varroa mites sometime this year. These mites are killing honeybee colonies worldwide. In May, GreenLight’s RNA-based solution was named a finalist for Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards.
“The technology at GreenLight, we’re testing it now, and we’ve seen it work,” said Barry Hart, owner of Hart Honey Farms in Georgia. Hart indicated the Varroa mites have decimated many of his hives.
In October, the company announced a deal with Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. The two will work to develop a solution to fall armyworm, which causes more than $2 billion (U.S.) in annual global crop loss.
GreenLight’s plant health division is attempting to create RNA-based solutions for several fungi and insects that cause food loss and crop damage every year. To date, the company’s laboratory tests and field studies have left little or no residues.
The company also expects the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve its lead product, Calantha, this year. Calantha is a foliar-applied dsRNA pesticide against the Colorado potato beetle.
GreenLight reported about $44.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of June 30 in its second-quarter financial report released August 15.
Research-and-development expenses were $44.2 million in the second quarter, including $14 million in costs associated with materials purchased and fees for the manufacturing scale-up at Samsung Biologics. G&A expenses were $9.6 million in the quarter, with a net loss of $51.9 million.