EyePoint cuts 53% of its workforce and ends wet AMD trials early

EyePoint, Inc. will eliminate about 53% of its jobs and conclude its Phase 3 wet AMD trials early, the company said on October 19, 2026, after the LUCIA study became the second DURAVYU trial in that disease to miss its primary endpoint. The company estimated $118 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at September 30, 2026, and put annualized savings from the reset at about $30 million.

Both pivotal wet AMD studies are being closed before the second year of each is complete. LUCIA did not reach statistical non-inferiority in mean change in best-corrected visual acuity against on-label aflibercept, and LUGANO, the first of the pair, had already failed the same test in its full dataset. EyePoint enrolled 475 patients in LUCIA and 432 in LUGANO, more than 900 in total, retiring the program with the largest enrollment.

A 53% workforce cut and an early end to wet AMD

The workforce reduction touches approximately 53% of positions. Most of the cuts are expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 and are to be completed in the first half of 2027, and EyePoint expects charges of approximately $9 million for separation benefits, severance and related costs. The board approved the plan. The release gives no headcount, no site-level detail and no statement about the future of the Northbridge, Massachusetts manufacturing facility that was being scaled for a commercial launch that is no longer imminent.

Chief executive Jay S. Duker framed the decision around the remaining program: “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.” He added that “The strategic prioritization enables us to focus on our next milestone, the pivotal Phase 3 readout in DME”.

The cash balance is the only third-quarter figure in the filing

The document is a restructuring release, not a quarterly earnings report. The current report is tagged for results of operations, yet Exhibit 99.1 contains no income statement, no revenue line, no research and development expense and no per-share result for the third quarter. The one third-quarter number is a cash estimate: approximately $118 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments at September 30, 2026, down from $180 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at June 30, 2026, the last balance the company has reported in full.

Because the two labels differ, the comparison is indicative rather than exact, but it works out to a 34.4% decline over the quarter. Nor is there a restated cash runway. In August the company said the June 30 balance would fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2027, and the new release substitutes a savings target for that guidance rather than reaffirming or extending it. For scale, second-quarter operating expenses were $97.9 million against total net revenue of $500,000 for the quarter, which puts the annualized operating-expense run rate at about $391.6 million; the $30 million of annual savings is real but modest against that annual cost base.

What LUCIA still showed, and why DME is the remaining bet

EyePoint is keeping its mechanistic argument, saying the LUCIA findings support DURAVYU’s potential in DME and that it will complete additional analyses of the LUCIA and pooled Phase 3 datasets. LUCIA missed its non-inferiority endpoint on vision despite visual improvement, but produced a 38% reduction in treatment burden with a nominal p-value below 0.0001; 52% of eyes needed no supplemental aflibercept through Week 56 and 71% received zero or one supplement. Anatomic control and safety with redosing held up, consistent with LUGANO.

Management reads those results as transferable to diabetic macular edema, where inflammation is part of the disease mechanism and DURAVYU’s IL-6/JAK1 inhibition is meant to matter. That is the company’s interpretation rather than a regulatory finding, and the wet AMD program now has no described path beyond those analyses. Duker said of the trial: “We are disappointed that the LUCIA trial did not meet the primary endpoint given the promising scientific rationale of DURAVYU and its potential to improve outcomes for patients with wet AMD.”

The readout that now carries the company

DURAVYU’s remaining value rests on two identical Phase 3 DME trials, COMO and CAPRI, which enrolled 551 patients and randomize 1:1 to DURAVYU 2.7 mg every six months or on-label aflibercept every eight weeks. Topline data are expected in the fourth quarter of 2027, roughly a year away, with little revenue expected in the interim.

The Phase 2 VERONA study is the support: a gain of 7.1 letters in best-corrected visual acuity, a 76-micron reduction in central subfield thickness at Week 24, and a supplement-free rate of 73% versus 50% in the control arm. Whether $118 million and $30 million of annual savings carry the company to that readout is the question the release leaves open. It gives no runway figure, and the $9 million of separation charges is a cash cost that lands before the savings do.