Ambys: 'Moonshot' at liver cell therapy biotech Ambys Medicines comes to an end

Ambys Medicines, backed by Third Rock Ventures and a partner to Takeda, closed its doors in recent months without a big public disclosure, but multiple employees flashed signals on a networking site. The South San Francisco biotech planned to make a hepatocyte replacement cell therapy for liver disease, but per one former employee, Ambys "could not convince investors to bring this transformative therapy to patients at this time," according to a LinkedIn post. A former executive wrote on the job networking platform that the shuttering was due to "a set of unfortunate circumstances." Many drug developers have attempted to weather a difficult market over the past year by conducting layoffs, but some biotechs have called it quits altogether after trial disappointments, gaps in investor interest and other factors. Ambys, which came out of the oven in August 2018, had set out with cell therapy, gene therapy and small molecule ambitions. Takeda doled out $100 million upfront, Ambys said at the time of its unveiling. That was good for options to ex-US rights to the first four candidates that reached IND. In the second quarter of this year, Ambys had expected to be in the clinic with an off-the-shelf cell therapy that replaced damaged liver tissue with healthy cells. That prediction came at the time of a $47 million capital haul announced in December 2021. Third Rock­'s Am­bys hauls $140M for liv­er dis­ease, ink­ing Take­da deal ahead of launch Markus Grompe Ambys touted big potential for its second program at the time of that financing. Its second asset was geared to "ultimately reverse disease in patients with decompensated liver disease," the company described in a press release. "This advanced technology has the potential to benefit more than a half-million liver disease patients in the U.S. alone each year." CSO Markus Grompe had described Ambys' mission as a "moonshot" due to the "tremendous challenge of producing the types of cells needed at scale." The name is derived from the Mexican salamander known for regenerating limbs, Ambystoma mexicanum.