Enanta Pharmaceuticals has laid off 37 employees as the company reshapes itself around upcoming clinical milestones in antivirals and immunology. In a statement to Fierce, the Watertown, Massachusetts-based company said it reviewed the resources and capabilities needed to execute on its current priorities and made the decision to right-size across all departments to operate more efficiently.
Enanta employed 120 full-time workers as of Sept. 30, 2025, according to an annual report filed in January. The company said it still has the right team in place to pursue its business goals and position itself for sustainable progress in the years ahead.
What the cuts are meant to support
The near-term center of gravity remains zelicapavir, Enanta’s antiviral for respiratory syncytial virus. The ongoing Phase 2b Lotus trial is testing the drug in infants, with topline data expected next year. Enanta also plans to begin a Phase 2b/3 trial in high-risk adults by the end of the year.
That adult program carries more risk than a simple pipeline summary might imply. Zelicapavir succeeded in an earlier Phase 2 pediatric study, but it failed a mid-stage trial in adults last year. Enanta has continued development based on what it described as promising subgroup analyses from that adult study. The next set of trials therefore does more than add data; it tests whether the company’s read on the setback was strong enough to justify continued spending.
Alongside the RSV work, Enanta is pushing an earlier immunology effort led by EDP-978, an oral KIT inhibitor in Phase 1 testing for urticaria. Topline data are expected before the end of the year. That gives the company two distinct opportunities to reset the narrative: one around salvaging and refining an antiviral program, and another around proving it can broaden beyond its historical specialty.
The financial picture
The restructuring comes with a defined but limited financial base. Enanta reported $14.4 million in revenue last quarter, all from royalties on the AbbVie-licensed hepatitis C treatment Mavyret/Maviret. It had $211.5 million on hand at the end of June.
CEO Jay Luly said in an August quarterly report that the company had a catalyst-rich year ahead, with multiple opportunities to drive shareholder value and bring treatments to patients in need. The layoffs suggest management is trying to preserve that runway for the programs most likely to determine the company’s medium-term direction.
For biopharma watchers, the signal is less about the headcount reduction itself than about portfolio concentration. Enanta is using cost cuts to buy time for two readouts that need to do different jobs: zelicapavir must show the RSV franchise still has a path after the adult miss, while EDP-978 must show the immunology expansion is more than a hedge against antiviral volatility.
