Posted on 05/06/2025 3:22:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Unity Biotechnology's chief executive will become a part-time consultant for the company — and get a lump sum severance payout
In the release, Unity CEO Anirvan Ghosh buried the company’s layoff news under hype for the company’s lead drug candidate, a potential treatment for the eye disease known as diabetic macular edema. He wrote that preliminary study results have been positive and that Unity is hoping a company with existing eye research capabilities will join in for further development. Ghosh’s team is set to present its full results from the trial on Wednesday.
The Monday SEC filing said Unity’s workers will largely be gone from the company by May 15 and that it’s estimating severance and other related costs of $3.7 million. That’s a solid chunk of the $16.9 million Unity reported having in its coffers as of the end of March.
Even before this layoff, the company’s headcount had been dwindling for years. Per filings, Unity finished 2021 with 65 workers, dropped to 32 the next year and to 19 the next. The company closed out 2024 with 16 full-time employees. It’s unclear which workers, besides the company’s CEO chief financial officer and chief legal officer, will come back as consultants. Those three executives, as they lose their full-time jobs, are set to receive lump sums of cash equaling nine to 12 months of their salaries, the SEC filing said. Unity declined to answer SFGATE’s questions and request for comment.
It’s a dark day for a company once heralded for its well-funded and novel approaches to anti-aging research. Excited 2018 profiles in CNBC and Forbes pointed to Unity’s focus on senescent cells, which have stopped dividing but haven’t died and can build up in body tissue. Company leaders talked up their hopes of treating osteoarthritis and increasing “healthspan.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Looks like it is now less than a dollar a share...
$3.7 mil in severance, 16 employees, so on average (it won’t be average) $231k each to walk away.
If I was rank and file knowing what a bad position we were in, heck yea. In a couple months it might be a fraction of that, considering dwindling funds.
So—the anti-aging company died.
Oops.
Ghosh and Golly!
Trump haters?
Leaving a healthy amount to go into the senior execs' pockets as consultants as they enjoy the 1 year lump sum payout.
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