EyePoint cuts about half its staff after second Duravyu wet AMD phase 3 miss

EyePoint Pharmaceuticals said on October 19 that its phase 3 Lucia trial of Duravyu in wet age-related macular degeneration did not meet its primary endpoint of non-inferiority against aflibercept, which Regeneron sells as Eylea. It is the second wet AMD failure for the drug in two months, after the twin Lugano study missed its primary endpoint in August.

The company also said it would cut about 53% of positions and stop both late-stage wet AMD trials early, without completing a planned second year. According to BioSpace, shares fell more than 80% at the open on Monday, October 19, to 55 cents. Fierce Pharma put the morning drop at more than 84%.

The details

Lucia and Lugano were identical, double-masked trials. Patients were randomized 1:1 to Duravyu 2.7 mg every six months or aflibercept 2 mg every eight weeks after three monthly loading doses, with supplemental aflibercept allowed under set criteria, according to the company's release filed with the SEC. Lucia enrolled 475 patients and Lugano enrolled 432.

The primary endpoint was mean change in best corrected visual acuity at blended weeks 52 and 56. EyePoint did not publish the figures. Fierce Pharma reported a 3.7-letter gap in favor of Eylea, outside the non-inferiority margin. "We are disappointed that the LUCIA trial did not meet the primary endpoint," chief executive Jay Duker said in the release.

The secondary results were better. In Lucia, Duravyu cut treatment burden by 38% (nominal p<0.0001), 52% of eyes needed no supplemental shot and 71% got zero or one supplement through week 56, the company said. Lugano showed a 42% reduction in treatment burden.

Most of the job cuts will happen in the fourth quarter, with the rest done in the first half of 2027. EyePoint expects about $30 million in annualized savings and about $9 million in separation costs. BioSpace noted the company had 214 employees on February 27, so the cut could reach about 113 people.

Context

EyePoint had about $118 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments on September 30, down from $180.5 million on June 30. The release gives no runway figure. Its risk language warns that cash "may not be sufficient to support its operating plan for as long as anticipated," per the same release.

Expectations had been mixed going in. Before the readout, Jefferies analysts wrote that "Lucia feels like a coin flip, but we lean pos given how close Lugano was to a win," Fierce reported. The Lugano miss in August had sent the stock down 70%, according to BioSpace.

The company now turns to diabetic macular edema. In the phase 2 Verona trial, the 2.7 mg dose gained 7.1 letters at week 24 and 73% of patients stayed supplement-free versus 50% for control, EyePoint said. Its two phase 3 DME trials, Como and Capri, finished enrolling in July.

What it means for investors

Two identical trials missed the same vision endpoint against the standard of care. That makes a wet AMD filing hard to argue, even with the fewer-injections data. EyePoint says it will run more analyses of Lucia, Lugano and the pooled data before it decides what to do in wet AMD, per Fierce.

The company is now a bet on DME. The support for that bet is a phase 2 trial. Across drugs studied from 2011 to 2020, only 28.9% of phase 2 programs advanced to phase 3, according to BIO, Informa and QLS, and DME is a new late-stage test for Duravyu. The main risk is time and money: about $118 million in cash, a smaller staff, and a wait of roughly a year to the DME readouts. Duker said the DME data will test whether Duravyu can offer "a durable, long-term therapeutic option that safely reduces the overall injection burden for patients," according to the prioritization release.

What to watch

Most of the layoffs land in the fourth quarter of 2026. Topline phase 3 data from Como and Capri are expected in the fourth quarter of 2027.

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