Nkarta announces cost containment measures to extend cash runway

Nkarta announced cost containment measures designed to extend its projected cash runway by one year into 2026, funding its operations well beyond the multiple clinical data updates expected in 2024. Nkarta estimates that, as of September 30, 2023, it had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and investments of $278.4 million. This figure is preliminary and subject to completion of Nkarta’s financial closing procedures. The decrease in forecasted spend includes a reduction in and re-allocation of headcount combined with a stringent cap on future headcount growth, planned centralization of operations to a single location and early success in the optimization of Nkarta’s manufacturing platform. The company expects to announce clinical updates from its three pipeline programs in 2024: NKX101 in the first half of 2024, NKX019 in mid-2024 and NKX019 in 2024. Nkarta will evaluate options to advance each program with additional investment on the basis of those data readouts.