Arpeggio plays final chord as biotech disbands on poor prospects for Nrf2 program

Biotech Arpeggio plays final chord as biotech disbands on poor prospects for Nrf2 program By James Waldron Aug 10, 2026 5:04am non-small cell lung cancer Biotech graveyard layoffs Arpeggio Biosciences’ eight-year song has come to an end as the transcriptome biotech’s CEO admitted the company’s Nrf2 program had started to “unravel.” The Boulder, Colorado-based biotech was set up by CEO Joey Azofeifa, Chief Technology Officer Tim Read and Chief Operating Officer Laura Norris in 2018 to make use of what Arpeggio claimed at the time was the “largest database of nascent-RNA sequences in the world.” The company’s research had its origins at the University of Colorado’s BioFrontiers Institute. Armed with a $17 million series A in 2022 from the likes of Builders VC, Khosla Ventures and TechU Ventures, the company’s focus became a small molecule Nrf2 degrader for non-small cell lung cancer. Nrf2 is an important transcription factor that controls many detoxifying or anti-inflammatory defense mechanisms.

The privately-owned biotech has kept a relatively low profile since the fundraise. But in a recent LinkedIn post, Azofeifa confirmed that the company’s leadership had “made the difficult decision to wind down” last month. “Our lead drug program … represented years of novel science,” the CEO wrote.

“But in the end, we were unable to separate the molecule's efficacy from an off-target liability.” Azofeifa admitted that there were “numerous challenges associated” with Arpeggio’s goal of developing medicine “to restore the system rather than ablate a single target.” But the CEO insisted this “founding idea was beautiful.” “In the end, we generated over 50 million experiments in dozens of reporter lines incubated with a library of more than 150,000 compounds,” he pointed out. “We sequenced over 300,000 transcriptomes (and lots of other -omes), made more than 2,000 proprietary small molecules across four different drug programs, and performed hundreds of [absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion], [pharmacokinetic] and efficacy studies.” But the resulting Nrf2 program “began to unravel … over the last few months,” Azofeifa explained. Arpeggio’s website is no longer accessible and it’s unclear how many employees will be affected by the company’s closure.

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