Coherus cuts 30% of staff as it narrows tagmokitug focus to esophageal cancer

Coherus Oncology is cutting 30% of its workforce, roughly 44 jobs based on its last disclosed headcount, as it narrows development of tagmokitug to esophageal cancer. The California biotech announced the reorganization Monday, less than two years after an identical 30% reduction in March 2025.

The company did not disclose the exact number of roles affected. Its most recent headcount, filed as of Dec. 31, 2025, listed 147 full-time and part-time employees — a base from which the 30% figure implies approximately 44 positions.

The cuts follow a strategic decision to deprioritize the investigational combination of tagmokitug, a cytolytic CCR8 antibody, and toripalimab across several indications. Before the reorganization, Coherus had studied the duo in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, colorectal cancer and gastric cancer. The lead indication is now esophageal cancer.

What data drove the narrowing?

Last month, Coherus reported interim Phase 1b results for the antibody pair in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In a front-line setting, the combination achieved a confirmed overall response rate of 75%, irrespective of PD-L1 status. The company has not disclosed the full sample size behind that interim figure, and the data remain early-stage.

Whether the 75% response rate holds in a larger, controlled setting will determine whether the portfolio concentration was prescient or premature. Interim Phase 1b results in single-arm settings frequently shrink under randomized scrutiny.

What are the financial mechanics?

CFO Bryan McMichael framed the layoffs as an operating-model decision. "The financial benefits of right-sizing the organization and reducing the scope of our forward-focused efforts provide substantial and durable benefits to our operating model," he said in the Monday release.

He added that the benefits will be realized over the next two quarters and will lower quarterly core cash burn by $6 million — an annualized saving of $24 million.

This is the second downsizing in a short window. The March 2025 cuts followed Coherus' divestment of Udenyca, a drug used to reduce infection risk from low white blood cell counts, to Intas Pharmaceuticals' Accord BioPharma. That deal carried a $483 million upfront payment, of which Coherus said $230 million would repay convertible notes due in 2026.

What is happening at Gyre?

Separately, San Diego–based Gyre Therapeutics is laying off an undisclosed number of workers following its acquisition of Cullgen, a biotech developing targeted protein degraders and degrader antibody conjugate therapies.

Gyre closed the all-stock buyout, valued at $300 million, in May and has since incorporated Cullgen as a subsidiary. Before the acquisition, Cullgen employed more than 120 staffers, according to a Gyre presentation filed with the SEC.

The restructuring is already visible in Gyre's financials. The company recorded a $3.6 million increase in personnel costs in the third quarter compared with the same quarter of 2025, driven largely by internal restructuring and severance tied to the Cullgen integration.

Gyre declined to disclose the number of employees affected or to provide additional comment beyond its filings.

What remains unanswered?

Neither company has specified exactly how many people are losing their jobs. Coherus' 44-role estimate derives from a headcount snapshot that may already be stale, and Gyre has offered no figure at all for either the Cullgen layoffs or its internal restructure.

For R&D managers watching both companies, the pattern is familiar: acquisition-integration severance charges and pipeline pruning are landing in the same quarter. Gyre's severance costs suggest the Cullgen consolidation is still in motion, and Coherus' savings timeline — two quarters — implies the full financial effect will not appear until well into next year. Both companies will face questions about execution capacity once the reduced teams are in place.