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Seaport biotech lays off most of its employees amid sale talks
Sensei Biotherapeutics is reducing its workforce by 65% as it evaluates strategic options in a weak fundraising environment.
Sensei Biotherapeutics, a cancer-focused biotech with offices in the Seaport, announced this week it will shed about 65% of its staff while evaluating a potential sale.
As of March 14, 2025, the company had 14 full-time employees and one part-time employee. After the layoffs, about five employees will remain to explore strategic alternatives, handle regulatory and financial reporting requirements, and wind down development activities.
According to its annual report, the latest layoffs follow a restructuring last November, when the company cut 46% of its staff to streamline operations and concentrate resources on advancing its lead product, the monoclonal antibody solnerstotug.
As part of the restructuring, the company closed its research site in Rockville, Maryland, focusing on its offices in the Seaport. The company has a lease for office and laboratory space until September 2026.
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“We have seen solnerstotug demonstrate clinical activity in a patient population with significant unmet need,” said John Celebi, President and CEO of Sensei, in a statement. “However, after careful review of future funding needs and the current capital markets environment, we have determined not to initiate a new clinical study,” he continued.
Celebi says the company will now “wind down” the clinical trial and try to preserve shareholder value.
Sensei Biotherapeutics has never reported revenue. As a clinical-stage company focused on the discovery and development of next-generation cancer therapeutics, it does not have an approved commercial product generating sales revenue.
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Its financial activities consist of research and development, and general and administrative expenses, resulting in net losses.
In the third quarter of this year, the company reported a net loss of $4.6 million and had about $25 million in cash and cash equivalents.
According to its annual report, the company was incorporated in Maryland as Panacea Pharmaceuticals in 1999. In December 2017, the company reincorporated in Delaware and changed its name to Sensei Biotherapeutics Inc.
Its former principal executive officers were in Rockville, Maryland.
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