Insitro’s layoffs affect about 65 employees as the AI-focused biotech looks to advance its pipeline in metabolic disease and neuroscience.
Looking to streamline operations, sharpen its focus on key priorities and extend its runway into 2027, insitro has cut 22% of its workforce, leaving a team of about 230 employees, the biotech announced May 7. The layoffs affect around 65 people.
“While challenging, this action amidst current macroeconomic uncertainty enables the advancement of our first-in-class pipeline in metabolic disease and neuroscience, ensures clinic readiness in 2026, and supports our continued investment in our key differentiator—innovation at the intersection of advanced AI/ML and data integration and generation at scale for novel biology discovery and drug development,” the San Francisco–based company said in its LinkedIn announcement.
In a separate LinkedIn post, insitro CEO Daphne Koller called May 7 one of the hardest days of her career as a chief executive officer and pointed to the “current tumultuous market environment” as driving the decision to lay off employees.
“The path to an ambitious and transformative goal is not a linear one and there are inevitable challenges on the long journey, but challenges also make us stronger,” she wrote. “While this is a crucible moment, I am confident that we have what it takes to withstand it. We will come out on the other side of this challenge, better able to build a generational company that truly delivers on our mission of bringing medicines to the patients who need them the most.”
In other recent company news, insitro in March announced a collaboration with the INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to develop a novel AI foundation model. The model is meant to help discover new ocular biomarkers and therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative and related conditions.
In October 2024, insitro announced it had entered into three strategic agreements with Eli Lilly to advance new therapies for metabolic disease, especially metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease (MASH). Under the first two agreements, the biotech has the option to in-license a clinical-stage ternary N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) delivery method from the pharma. Insitro plans to use the technology with two of its investigational siRNA therapies, directing each one against a liver target.
Under the third agreement, Lilly and insitro will collaborate to discover and develop an antibody therapy for another metabolic disease. The partners will work together through the preclinical stage and until candidate nomination. After that, insitro will take over clinical development and commercialization.
