Foghorn Plans 40% Workforce Cut After Decision on Lilly Drug Trial

Foghorn Therapeutics disclosed October 1 that its board had approved a plan to cut approximately 40% of its current workforce. The Watertown, Massachusetts, biotech expects to substantially complete the reduction in the fourth quarter of 2026 and to have about 65 full-time employees afterward. The filing does not identify affected job titles; the 65 figure is the projected remaining full-time staff, not a count of jobs to be cut.

The staffing decision follows a September 25 decision by Foghorn and Eli Lilly not to advance their FHD-909 cancer-drug trial into its expansion phase after reviewing Phase 1 data. Foghorn CEO Adrian Gottschalk said efficacy fell short of what was needed to advance the program. Foghorn does not anticipate further activities under the collaboration. For employees and prospective applicants, the company’s plan means a smaller workforce focused on different research priorities.

The costs and the remaining work

Foghorn estimates $2.3 million in aggregate charges from the reduction, primarily for one-time severance and benefits. It expects all of those charges to be future cash expenditures. The estimate covers the company’s plan, rather than specifying what any individual employee will receive.

Foghorn says it will direct resources toward its EP300 degrader, immunology-and-inflammation, CBP degrader and induced-proximity programs. It now projects that its cash will last into the second half of 2029, compared with its August 6 forecast of a runway into the first half of 2028. Both dates are company projections. The immediate workforce timetable remains the planned fourth-quarter completion of the reduction.