Cyteir Therapeutics announces prioritization of CYT-0851 development

Cyteir Therapeutics announced the strategic prioritization of clinical development of CYT-0851, an investigational monocarboxylate transporter inhibitor, as a potential combination therapy for the treatment of ovarian cancer. The prioritization follows encouraging preliminary clinical activity in a small number of patients observed in the Phase 1 dose escalation cohort with CYT-0851 in combination with capecitabine in advanced ovarian cancer. Cyteir plans to expand its evaluation of CYT-0851 in combination with capecitabine to treat advanced ovarian cancer and enroll additional patients in the first half of 2023 to further support these early signals. If successful, the combination of CYT-0851 with capecitabine has the potential to be an all-oral treatment for ovarian cancer. In conjunction with focusing clinical activities on ovarian cancer, Cyteir is reducing headcount by approximately 70% and deferring research and development in other areas, which is expected to extend Cyteir’s cash runway into 2026. "We are encouraged by these early signals and believe that an initial focus on the combination of CYT-0851 and capecitabine represents the greatest likelihood of success and an opportunity to serve patients with advanced ovarian cancer that have a high unmet medical need. This combination, if successful, has the potential to be an all-oral treatment regimen for patients with platinum resistant ovarian cancer," said Markus Renschler, MD, Cyteir’s President and CEO. "This strategic prioritization and the difficult decision to reduce our workforce is expected to extend our cash runway into 2026 and, if supported by the data and regulatory feedback, allows us to advance CYT-0851 into a potentially registrational trial as early as the second half of 2024. I personally would like to thank all of our dedicated employees and express my gratitude for their hard work in advancing our pipeline, and I wish them the best in the future."