Cellectis to cut up to 70% of staff as it abandons CAR-T for in vivo editing
- In its Q3 update, Cellectis said the move to in vivo gene editing could cut up to 70% of headcount (229 employees at end-2025), phased through 2026 and into 2027 across Paris, New York and Raleigh.
- Enrollment is stopped in the lasme-cel and eti-cel CAR-T programs; the new lead assets are HEAL-101 (APOC3 base editor) and HEAL-201 (PCSK9 epigenetic editor), both entering investigator-initiated trials in China.
- Cash of $149M is guided to last into 2H 2028; first clinical data are not expected until 2H 2027.
💡 Points Based on public reports
A company founded on allogeneic CAR-T is giving up its own clinical franchise rather than seeking a buyer, which says how little it expects from the cell-therapy path. It is also entering the most crowded corner of in vivo editing, lipid targets where PCSK9 already has siRNA, with no human data for roughly two years. The runway into 2028 leaves little room for a delay.
📰 Source · BioSpace ↗ Cellectis could cut 70% of workforce in shift to in vivo therapies