EyePoint Layoffs: Watertown Biotech Cuts 53% of Staff After Trial Miss

Watertown biotech EyePoint Inc. will cut about 53% of its workforce after the second of two late-stage trials of its eye drug Duravyu missed its main goal in wet age-related macular degeneration, the company said on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. The EyePoint layoffs are expected to save about $30 million a year, cost about $9 million in severance and related charges, and mostly take effect in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the rest finished in the first half of 2027, according to the company’s announcement.

EyePoint Layoffs: Size, Timing and Cost

EyePoint did not give a headcount in its release, but the Boston Business Journal reported that the cut amounts to more than 100 jobs, as published by NBC Boston. The key figures from the company:

• Workforce reduction: about 53% of positions across the organization.
• Timing: most of the cuts in Q4 2026; completion in the first half of 2027.
• Savings: about $30 million a year once complete.
• One-time charges: about $9 million for severance and other separation benefits.
• Cash: about $118 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of Sept. 30, 2026.

EyePoint is headquartered at 480 Pleasant St. in Watertown and runs a commercial manufacturing plant at 600 Commerce Park Drive in Northbridge. The company has not said how the job cuts will be split between the two Massachusetts sites.

What the LUCIA Trial Showed

The cuts follow topline results from LUCIA, a Phase 3 trial that compared Duravyu, an implant that slowly releases the drug vorolanib inside the eye, against Regeneron’s Eylea (aflibercept), the standard injection. The goal was to show that Duravyu dosed every six months could match the vision gains of Eylea dosed every eight weeks. In its results release, EyePoint said LUCIA did not achieve statistical non-inferiority on mean change in best-corrected visual acuity.

Fierce Pharma reported that Duravyu patients gained 2.5 letters of vision over 52 weeks compared with 6 letters for Eylea, a gap that fell outside the trial’s non-inferiority margin. The twin trial, LUGANO, also missed its primary endpoint in August. LUCIA enrolled 475 patients and LUGANO enrolled 432.

The company said Duravyu met key secondary goals in LUCIA, including a 38% reduction in treatment burden, 52% of eyes needing no supplemental injection through Week 56, strong anatomic control and a favorable safety profile with redosing. EyePoint will stop both wet AMD trials early, without completing their planned second year, and will run further analyses of the pooled data before deciding next steps in that disease.

The New Priority: Diabetic Macular Edema

EyePoint is now focusing its remaining resources on Duravyu for diabetic macular edema (DME), a leading cause of vision loss in people with diabetes. Two Phase 3 trials, COMO and CAPRI, enrolled 551 patients in total and are expected to report topline data in the fourth quarter of 2027. The company points to its Phase 2 VERONA trial in DME, which met its primary endpoint; Duravyu 2.7 mg showed a 7.1-letter vision gain at Week 24 and a 73% supplement-free rate compared with 50% in the control arm, according to EyePoint.

Market and Local Impact

Investors reacted sharply. EyePoint shares fell more than 84% Monday morning, Fierce Pharma reported. The cuts add to a difficult year for Massachusetts life sciences employment. The Boston Business Journal counted more than 440 biotech workers in the state who lost jobs in the third quarter alone.

Not all area life sciences news has been negative: Waltham-based Repligen recently closed a deal covered in our report on the Repligen BioLife acquisition, and earlier this month we covered the Bambusa Therapeutics IPO.

Reactions

“Decisions involving a reduction in our workforce are exceptionally difficult, and we extend our deepest gratitude to our departing colleagues for their dedication and meaningful contributions,” CEO Jay S. Duker said in the company’s statement. On a Monday conference call, Duker said, “Today’s data reinforces our fundamental conviction in Duravyu,” according to Fierce Pharma.

Chief Medical Officer Ramiro Ribeiro said in the results release that the company was “encouraged that more than 50% of DURAVYU patients remained supplement-free up to 56 weeks in both Phase 3 trials.”

Additional Details

• Duravyu is investigational and not approved by the FDA. The company licenses vorolanib from Equinox Sciences, an affiliate of Betta Pharmaceuticals, for eye diseases outside China, Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• EyePoint’s risk disclosures mention an FDA warning letter tied to its Watertown manufacturing facility.
• The workforce plan was disclosed in an SEC Form 8-K filing.

Featured image: A historic building at the former Watertown Arsenal on Arsenal Street in Watertown, Mass. Historic American Buildings Survey photo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. The building is not EyePoint’s office.

Sources

• EyePoint: EyePoint Announces Strategic Prioritization (Oct. 19, 2026)
• EyePoint: Topline Results from LUCIA, the Second Pivotal Phase 3 Trial of DURAVYU in Wet AMD (Oct. 19, 2026)
• Boston Business Journal via NBC Boston: Mass. biotech firm cuts 100+ jobs after two late-stage trials miss their goals (Oct. 19, 2026)
• Fierce Pharma: EyePoint cuts headcount, shifts priorities after another Duravyu AMD miss (Oct. 19, 2026)
• Boston Business Journal: Over 440 Massachusetts biotech workers lost jobs in Q3 (Oct. 7, 2026)
• SEC: EyePoint Form 8-K