Employers & Industry
Foghorn Therapeutics plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 40% after it and Eli Lilly decided not to advance a jointly developed cancer drug, according to a Form 8-K the Watertown, Massachusetts, company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 1.
What the filing says
The filing says that on Sept. 25, after reviewing clinical data from the Phase 1 trial of FHD-909, Foghorn and Lilly “made the decision not to advance the trial into the expansion phase.” Foghorn’s board approved a strategic reprioritization and workforce reduction on Sept. 30.
The company expects to have approximately 65 full-time employees after the reduction and to substantially complete it in the fourth quarter of 2026. It estimates aggregate charges of approximately $2.3 million, all expected to result in cash expenditures, “primarily for one-time employee severance and benefit costs” to be incurred in the fourth quarter.
The collaboration also will not advance a selective SMARCA2 degrader program, and the companies do not anticipate further collaboration activities, Foghorn said. The filing does not disclose the company’s headcount before the reduction.
A narrower pipeline and a longer runway
In its Oct. 1 announcement, Foghorn said the pipeline prioritization and organizational changes are expected to extend its cash runway into the second half of 2029. The company said it will focus on programs including a selective EP300 degrader, an immunology and inflammation asset, a selective CBP degrader and its induced proximity platform.
“While we are disappointed with the clinical results, we and Lilly developed a drug in FHD-909 that selectively hits the SMARCA2 target with a favorable safety profile at exposures that exceeded our preclinical targets,” said Adrian Gottschalk, Foghorn’s president and chief executive. “Unfortunately, the biology of the SMARCA2/4 synthetic lethality relationship has not translated into the level of efficacy required to further advance the program.”
“Foghorn is reducing its workforce by approximately 40% and further aligning its operating structure resulting in cash to fund Foghorn’s priority programs into the second half of 2029,” Gottschalk said.
What is still uncertain
The 40% figure is an announced reduction, not a count of completed separations. In the filing, Foghorn cautions that “the workforce reduction may be larger than currently anticipated” and that it “may incur additional costs not currently contemplated.”
For workers, the reduction is tied directly to a clinical result and the company’s decision to stop specific development work, rather than to a broader change in demand.
What to watch: completion of the reduction in the fourth quarter and any updated headcount in Foghorn’s next quarterly filing.
Sources
- Foghorn Therapeutics Inc., Form 8-K (Items 2.05, 7.01, 9.01), date of report September 25, 2026, filed October 1, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1822462/000162828026064102/fhtx-20260925.htm
- Foghorn Therapeutics Inc., Exhibit 99.1 press release, October 1, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1822462/000162828026064102/exhibit991foghornpressrele.htm
Featured photo: A scientist at the National Cancer Institute uses a pipette in a laboratory. Representative image of biotechnology research work; not Foghorn Therapeutics. Photo: Diane A. Reid, National Cancer Institute, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Cropped from the original.
