Six biotechs based in California, Massachusetts, Washington and Denmark had to halt drug development efforts this year. One of their CEOs is now in an interim chief executive role at another biotech.
While most of the biotechs cutting ties with employees during the first quarter are still in business, six have shuttered or are winding down. The exact number of people affected by the closures is unknown, but they pushed at least several dozen people into the job market.
Following is an overview of each company’s decision to shut down and a look at where their CEOs are now.
1. Rampart Bioscience
In January, news broke that La Jolla, California–based Rampart Bioscience had ended operations. Based on speaking to two former employees, Endpoints News reported that the company had downsized twice last year and shut down in early January for unspecified reasons. It’s unclear how many employees the closure affected, and the biotech’s LinkedIn page that would have given a rough staff count is gone.
Rampart had been working to develop DNA-based therapies that didn’t use viral vectors for delivery. The company had formed around a proprietary platform, HALO, that it said could work around the drawbacks of using viruses to get gene therapies into a cell. Rampart had hoped to use its HALO approach to treat hypophosphatasia, a rare genetic disorder that disrupts bone mineralization. However, the program never reached the clinic.
Louis Breton, who served as Rampart’s CEO, still lists the company as his current employer on his LinkedIn profile.
2. Lyra Therapeutics
Lyra Therapeutics effectively called it quits in January, announcing it was ceasing product development operations and laying off its 28 remaining employees. The Watertown, Massachusetts–based biotech retained CEO Maria Palasis and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Jason Cavalier as consultants to explore strategic alternatives in hopes of advancing LYR-210, its lead candidate for chronic rhinosinusitis.
Lyra last June reported positive results from a Phase 3 trial of LYR-210 but did not appear to have the funds to move the drug forward. In its January 2026 announcement, the biotech noted that its $22.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of Sept. 30, 2025, gave it a cash runway that would last into the third quarter of this year. Its cash on hand declined after that. The biotech had about $15.9 million of cash and cash equivalents as of Dec. 31, according to its 2025 annual report filed March 31. Lyra also said in the report that it’s continuing to evaluate potential strategic options that could include a merger, sale, divestiture of assets, licensing or other strategic transaction.
In addition to her role as a consultant for Lyra, Palasis is also on the board of directors for PanTher Therapeutics and Beta Bionics, according to her LinkedIn profile. PanTher is developing implantable medicines for patients with solid tumors, while Beta is designing, developing and commercializing medical devices for people with diabetes.
3. Faraday Pharmaceuticals
In February, Faraday Pharmaceuticals announced it had ceased operations and was winding down its business. While it’s unknown how many people the Seattle-based biotech’s closure affected, its LinkedIn page lists the company size as 11 to 50 employees.
Faraday had been developing drugs to prevent and treat cardiac and skeletal muscle loss. Steve Hill, who was the company’s CEO, notes on his LinkedIn profile that lead candidate FDY-5301 completed a Phase 3 study late last year but failed to meet its primary or secondary endpoints. The clinical trial was assessing FDY-5301’s effectiveness on cardiovascular mortality and acute heart failure events in subjects with an anterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction—a serious type of heart attack—who were undergoing a procedure that opens blocked arteries.
Hill now serves as interim CEO of Bitterroot Bio. He’s been in that position since February, when the biotech announced it was pausing clinical development of BRB-002. The immunomodulating protein therapy targets CD47 as a potential treatment option for patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a condition in which plaque builds up inside arteries. Bitterroot is looking to Hill to help lead the business in executing a research and preclinical development program aimed at returning to the clinic.
4. EveryONE Medicines
News broke in early March that Boston-based EveryONE Medicines, which had been developing precision medicines to treat neurodegenerative diseases, had decided to close down. It’s unknown how many employees the closure affected, although the biotech’s LinkedIn page lists the company size as two to 10 employees.
As to why EveryONE shuttered, an anonymous source told Endpoints News in March that the business had found the FDA’s just-released framework for personalized medicines insufficient and challenging to work with when it came to commercializing treatments for exceedingly small patient populations. The framework required each individualized medicine be treated as a discrete application, with a submission package created from the ground up every time.
Julia Vitarello, who was EveryONE’s CEO and co-founder, remains involved in the biotech space. She’s founder and chair/CEO of Mila’s Miracle Foundation, which is working to find and fund paths to a cure for neurological conditions like Batten disease, a fatal condition in which waste material builds up in brain cells. Vitarello’s daughter Mila passed away from the disease in 2021.
5. f5 Therapeutics
In March, f5 Therapeutics CEO Gary Choy announced on LinkedIn that the company was winding down. While it’s unclear how many people the San Diego startup’s closure affects, the biotech’s LinkedIn page notes the company size as two to 10 employees.
Regarding why f5 decided to wind down, Choy wrote in his LinkedIn post that “The past few years have been brutal for early‑stage biotech, with funding for young platforms at multi‑year lows and dozens of startups shutting their doors despite strong science. Against that backdrop, we pushed as hard as we could, for as long as we could.”
f5 was working on molecular glues developed using its proprietary NExMod platform, which used phenotypic screening to search for novel targets for previously undruggable conditions. The biotech had identified 11 potential targets that other companies weren’t yet pursuing.
While Choy’s LinkedIn profile still lists his current position as co-founder, chairman and CEO of f5, it also notes he is serving as founder, CEO and principal consultant of T&G Consulting. The commercial consulting firm works with emerging biotechs that aren’t yet ready to hire a commercial function.
6. IO Biotech
IO Biotech disclosed in a March SEC filing that it had ceased operations, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and terminated all employees. It’s unclear how many people the closure affected at the Danish biotech’s locations, which included sites in Rockville, Maryland, and New York. However, BioSpace estimated headcount at 39 people in September after the company halved its workforce, and IO cut an unknown but “significant” number of employees earlier this year.
As to why the biotech shut down, the business had been unable to recover from the FDA in September recommending it skip submitting a biologics license application for cancer vaccine candidate Cylembio. IO had been testing the drug as a frontline therapy in combination with Merck’s megablockbuster Keytruda in a Phase 3 study of advanced melanoma.
Mai-Britt Zocca, who served as the biotech’s president and CEO, still lists the company as her current employer on her LinkedIn profile but also notes being a board member at Dansk Biotek, an industry association of Danish biotechs. Her term runs from 2024 to 2026, according to the group’s website.
