The cell engineering company, co-founded by oncologist and writer Siddhartha Mukherjee, does not see a path forward for its pipeline of early-stage cell therapies for two different types of cancer.
Cambridge, Massachusetts–based Vor Bio is bowing out amid a tough funding environment after examining the clinical data currently available for its assets. The company, co-founded in 2015 by oncologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee based on work from his Columbia University laboratory, was focused on cell therapies for acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.
The company will now cease all clinical and manufacturing activity, including ongoing clinical trials, and look for ways to “maximize shareholder value.” This could include licensing or selling its assets, executing a merger, selling the company outright or some other “strategic action,” according to a Thursday announcement. The decision to wind down operations is based entirely on the company’s available clinical data and a “challenging fundraising environment,” according to the release.
With the announcement, Vor is also letting go of 95% of its staff, incurring $10.9 million in related costs. According to a recent SEC filing, Vor had 159 full-time employees as of March 2025. The company will retain eight employees for the time being to keep the lights on while they are “maintaining compliance with regulatory and financial reporting requirements, and winding-down the clinical and manufacturing operations.”
Vor had $91.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on hand as of the end of 2024, according to Vor’s statement. There is no timeline for this strategic shift and the company “does not intend to discuss or disclose further developments during this process” until a specific action is approved by the board of directors.
As recently as December 2024, Vor raised $55.6 million through a PIPE financing arrangement led by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. That money was to go toward advancing Vor’s pipeline of cell therapy oncology treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Those treatments included an engineered cell transplant called Trem-cel for AML and MDS as well as a CAR T treatment called VCAR33 for AML.
Both of those therapies were in Phase I/II trials, according to Vor’s published pipeline. Vor also has antibody-drug conjugates and cell transplants for treating AML, which were in preclinical discovery and IND-enabling studies.
