Aura Biosciences cuts 20% of staff and reshuffles C-suite to focus on ocular oncology

Aura Biosciences announced it is eliminating about one-fifth of its workforce as part of a broader restructuring under its new chief executive officer, Natalie Holles, who took the helm in April.

The company, previously pursuing precision therapies for solid tumors and bladder cancer, is narrowing its pipeline to ocular oncology, concentrating on its lead candidate belzupacap sarotalocan (bel-sar) for eye-cancer indications.

Although bel-sar showed encouraging early results in a non-muscle invasive bladder cancer trial, Aura will complete the phase 1b/2 study’s 12-month follow-up but will not pursue further development in that indication.

Resources will be redirected to the phase 3 trial of bel-sar in early choroidal melanoma, where enrollment has been completed and the study remains on schedule.