Repare Therapeutics Announces Massive Layoffs Amid Strategic Shift

Repare Therapeutics, a Montreal-based biotech company, has unveiled plans for a dramatic workforce reduction as part of a significant strategic reorganization. The company will cut approximately 75% of its staff, including high-level executives, as it refocuses its efforts on advancing key clinical programs.

Extensive Workforce Reduction

The latest round of layoffs, announced on February 25, 2025, comes less than a year after Repare cut about 25% of its workforce in August 2024. The company, which had 179 employees as of February 24, 2024, is expected to be left with fewer than 35 staff members once the restructuring is complete.

Among the departures is Maria Koehler, Repare's executive vice president and chief medical officer, who will leave her position on March 31. The company plans to retain her services in a consulting capacity for three months following her departure.

Repare estimates that these layoffs will result in annual savings of approximately $21 million. However, the company anticipates incurring one-time cash charges of about $7.3 million due to severance payments and related costs.

Strategic Refocus on Clinical Programs

The workforce reduction is part of a broader strategic shift announced by Repare in January 2025. The company has reprioritized its pipeline to focus on advancing two Phase I clinical programs:

1. RP-1664: A PLK4 inhibitor being evaluated as a monotherapy in adult and adolescent patients with TRIM37-high solid tumors. Repare plans to initiate a Phase I/II expansion trial in pediatric neuroblastoma in the third quarter of 2025, with a final trial readout expected in mid-2026.

2. RP-3467: A Polθ ATPase inhibitor being studied alone and in combination with olaparib, a poly-ADP ribose polymerase inhibitor. This Phase I trial is targeting patients with various cancer types, and a topline readout is anticipated in the third quarter of 2025.

As part of this refocus, Repare has decided to seek partnering opportunities for other assets in its portfolio, including the combination of lunresertib and camonsertib (known as Lunre+Camo), which was previously being evaluated in patients with endometrial cancer and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

Financial Implications and Future Outlook

Repare's CEO, Lloyd Segal, emphasized the company's commitment to achieving near-term inflection points for its Phase I clinical assets. "These changes provide the foundation for meaningful value creation," Segal stated in January.

The company expects that the combination of late-stage clinical funding savings and planned cost reductions will extend its cash runway into mid-2027. To ensure the retention of key personnel during this transition, Repare has allocated approximately $1.4 million in one-time employee retention costs for executives such as Chief Financial Officer Steve Forte and Chief Scientific Officer Mike Zinda.

While the layoffs and strategic shift represent a significant change for Repare Therapeutics, the company remains focused on advancing its core clinical programs and creating long-term value in the competitive oncology drug development landscape.