Entrada Therapeutics Restructures Workforce Amid Clinical Progress in DMD Program

Entrada Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech company focused on intracellular therapeutics, has announced significant changes to its workforce as it prioritizes its Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) clinical candidates and key preclinical programs. The restructuring comes on the heels of the FDA lifting a clinical hold on the company's lead DMD candidate, ENTR-601-44.

Workforce Reduction and Strategic Realignment

Entrada has disclosed plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 20%, primarily affecting research staff. The layoffs, expected to be substantially completed by the end of the second quarter of 2025, will impact around 37 employees based on the company's recent headcount of 183 full-time staff. Despite these cuts, Entrada is simultaneously gearing up to hire new employees to support a planned global clinical trial for its DMD program.

The company anticipates incurring about $2 million in expenses related to the restructuring, mainly attributed to severance payments and healthcare benefits. However, Entrada maintains that these changes will not affect its current cash runway, which is projected to extend into the second quarter of 2027.

Clinical Progress and Regulatory Developments

The workforce restructuring follows a significant regulatory milestone for Entrada. In February 2025, the FDA removed a clinical hold on ENTR-601-44, the company's exon 44 skipping oligonucleotide for DMD. This decision ended a more than two-year-long hold that had been in place since December 2022.

With the regulatory hurdle cleared, Entrada is now moving forward with plans to initiate a Phase Ib clinical trial of ENTR-601-44 in the first half of 2026. The study will enroll patients with confirmed mutations in the DMD gene amenable to exon 44 skipping.

Expanded DMD Pipeline and Financial Position

Entrada's strategic focus extends beyond ENTR-601-44. The company is prioritizing the acceleration of three additional DMD clinical candidates targeting exons 45, 50, and 51. This expanded pipeline aims to address a broader range of DMD patients with different genetic profiles.

Financially, Entrada reported strong results for the 2024 fiscal year. The company posted a net income of $65.6 million, a significant improvement from the $6.7 million net loss reported in 2023. As of December 31, 2024, Entrada's cash reserves, including cash equivalents and marketable securities, stood at $420 million, up from $352 million at the end of the previous year.

The restructuring and clinical advancements reflect Entrada's commitment to advancing its innovative approach to intracellular drug delivery. The company's technology, which utilizes peptides to facilitate the transport of drugs across cell membranes, holds promise for increasing dystrophin levels in key muscles, including the heart, in DMD patients.