Cellectis to Cut up to 70% of Staff in Pivot to In Vivo Gene Editing

By Rebecca Stone

Cellectis expects to eliminate up to 70% of its global workforce — roughly 160 of its 229 full-time employees — as it abandons its two clinical allogeneic CAR T programs and reorganizes around in vivo gene editing. The company disclosed the scale of the reduction in a Nov. 12 announcement, two months after its board approved the strategic shift.

The Paris-based biotech did not break down the cuts across its sites in Paris, New York and Raleigh, North Carolina. The reductions will roll out over the rest of this year and into 2027. A company spokesperson declined to give BioSpace further details, noting that the realignment remains subject to the French works council consultation process and to French and U.S. labor law requirements — a constraint that shapes both the timeline and the final headcount.

For R&D managers, the operational facts are blunt. Cellectis has stopped enrollment in its lasme-cel and eti-cel programs — both allogeneic CAR T cell therapies, meaning therapies built from donor cells rather than a patient's own cells — and site closeout activities are underway. Patients already treated will continue to be monitored under protocol-specified follow-up requirements, so the trials are not terminating abruptly; they are winding down.

What replaces the CAR T portfolio?

The pivot rests on two in vivo candidates, treatments delivered inside the body rather than through manufactured cell infusions. HEAL-101 is an in vivo base editing candidate (base editing chemically rewrites single DNA letters rather than cutting both strands) that targets APOC3 in severe hypertriglyceridemia, a condition of excess triglycerides in the blood that raises heart disease risk. HEAL-201 is an epigenetic editing candidate — it switches gene activity on or off without altering the DNA sequence — targeting PCSK9 in severe hypercholesterolemia, high blood cholesterol that can cause heart disease.

The timeline is the measure of the bet. Cellectis plans an investigator-initiated trial of HEAL-101 in China, with first clinical data expected in the second half of 2027. A Phase 1 investigator-initiated trial of HEAL-201 is also planned in China, with preliminary data due in the first half of 2028. Both trials are investigator-initiated (run by academic clinicians rather than directly by the sponsor), which typically lowers the company's direct trial costs but reduces control over execution.

CEO and co-founder André Choulika framed the September decision as a conclusion drawn from results and resource logic, saying it reflects the company's progress with HEAL-101 and HEAL-201 "and an assessment of where it could most effectively deploy its gene editing capabilities."

Does the balance sheet support the pivot?

The numbers the company itself reported: as of Sept. 30, Cellectis held $149 million in consolidated cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and fixed-term deposits classified as current and noncurrent financial assets. Management projects that this funds operations into the second half of 2028.

That runway is a projection, not a measured result, and it now has to cover two things at once: the cost of the reorganization, including severance obligations under French and U.S. labor law, and the clinical spend on two programs whose first data are still 19 to 25 months out. No severance cost estimate accompanied the announcement.

The strategic logic is worth stating plainly. Allogeneic CAR T faces a crowded field with established autologous competitors; in vivo editing for chronic cardiovascular-risk conditions is a far less occupied space, and one where a company with $149 million can still run early-stage trials. The cost of that repositioning is a workforce reduced to roughly 70 people and the closure of the clinical programs that built the company's name.

What to watch next: whether the French works council process confirms the 70% figure, and whether the HEAL-101 trial in China opens on schedule — the first hard test of whether the slimmed-down organization can deliver its 2027 data commitment.