aibioORIC cuts 20% of staff after $244 million gross financing, expects runway into 2028
Tickers ORIC
The company ended discovery research to focus on ORIC-944 and enozertinib. It does not expect to use its at-the-market facility for the foreseeable future.
Key facts
- Company
- Oric Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORIC)
- News type
- Distress
- Primary source
- Oric Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 8-K (2025-08-12)
ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ORIC) reported its second-quarter 2025 results on August 12, 2025 and announced a restructuring. It is cutting about 20% of its workforce and eliminating its discovery research group. The company expects a one-time charge of about $1.9 million in the third quarter, mostly termination benefits, including severance and healthcare-related benefits. It will explore partnering its preclinical programs.
Why the cuts came with the financing
The company says it raised $244 million gross in 2025, made up of a $125 million private placement in May and $119 million from its at-the-market facility. It has now stopped using that facility and does not expect to use it for the foreseeable future. The release describes the cash as a strengthened position, and it says the cuts were made so that spending is concentrated on the two lead programs.
The timing matters. The company raised the money first, then cut the staff. Chief executive officer Jacob M. Chacko said the company made "the tough, but prudent, decision" to reduce discovery research because its lead programs are closer to registrational studies. The release says the reprioritization and the additional financing extend runway, and it gives no reason tied to the discovery programs' results.
The runway
Cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $327.7 million at June 30, 2025. The balance sheet lists $282,513 thousand in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and $45,216 thousand in long-term investments. The $327.7 million figure includes the $125.0 million placement and $8.9 million raised from the ATM during the quarter. After the quarter ended, the company raised another $108.7 million in net proceeds under the ATM, for pro forma cash and investments of $436.4 million.
On that basis ORIC expects its cash to fund the revised operating plan into the second half of 2028. Before the restructuring, the company had said the second half of 2027. The release says that date falls beyond the expected primary endpoint readouts from the first Phase 3 trials of ORIC-944 and enozertinib.
The losses behind the numbers
The second-quarter net loss was $36,355 thousand, compared with $31,963 thousand a year earlier. Research and development expenses were $30.5 million for the quarter. General and administrative expenses were $8.5 million, up $1.4 million from the same quarter of 2024. For the six months, the net loss was $66,376 thousand, against $56,974 thousand in the first half of 2024.
Losses rose year on year, before the discovery group's elimination takes effect. The release gives no savings figure for the cut.
The clinical data in the release
The release reports preliminary data from the Phase 1b trial of ORIC-944, a PRC2 inhibitor, in combination with androgen receptor inhibitors in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. It reports a 59% PSA50 response rate, with 47% confirmed, and a 24% PSA90 response rate, all confirmed. The company describes the safety profile as compatible with long-term dosing, with most adverse events graded 1 or 2 and no grade 4 events.
These are early results from a Phase 1b study, and PSA response is a blood marker, not a clinical outcome such as survival or tumor shrinkage on scans. The release gives no comparison arm and no survival data. The company calls the data potentially "best-in-class," a comparison the release does not support with a head-to-head result.
For enozertinib, formerly ORIC-114, the release says enrollment continues in a Phase 1b trial in lung cancer. It has no efficacy results. It lists data milestones for the second half of 2025 and mid-2026.
What the release leaves out
The release does not give the number of employees affected, the total severance cost beyond the $1.9 million charge, or the terms on which preclinical programs might be partnered. It also does not say whether the company's runway estimate assumes any further ATM sales. The cash figures are at June 30, 2025, and the pro forma figure includes ATM proceeds raised after that date.