With its cash cache set to run out by the fourth quarter of this year, Werewolf Therapeutics is prowling the biotech landscape for a deal to keep its pipeline afloat. The immuno-oncology outfit is weighing a full range of strategic options, including selling or merging the company, with the goal of giving shareholders the biggest bang for their buck.
The full range of options also includes “a sale of assets, licensing or collaboration arrangements, or other strategic transactions,” Dan Hicklin, Ph.D., Werewolf president and CEO, said in a Feb. 24 post-market release.
As is typical when announcing a pursuit of strategic alternatives, Werewolf said in the release that no transaction is guaranteed and that no timeline has been set for the process.
The biotech disclosed its hairy financial situation in November 2025, declaring a cash supply of $65.7 million that was not set to last beyond 2026.
Werewolf’s stock enjoyed a bump in after-hours trading following the announced hunt for strategic alternatives. After closing the day at just $0.66 per share, the price ticked up to $0.81 10 minutes after the market closed before settling back down to around $0.70.
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Hicklin touted the biotech’s assets in the release, including a clinical-stage pipeline with two phase 1 candidates, WTX-124 and WTX-330. In December, Werewolf highlighted positive data from both programs while also announcing that it was seeking partnerships for both assets.
“In addition to our clinical-stage candidates and our named earlier-stage candidates, our Indukine and Inducer platforms provide exciting opportunities to apply our differentiated masking and protease linker technology in multiple additional modalities,” Hicklin said in the release.
Werewolf emerged in 2019 with $56 million and a goal of harnessing so-called “masked” anticancer agents, which remain dormant until springing into action upon reaching a tumor. By only stimulating the immune system at the site of the cancer, the compounds are meant to spare healthy tissue from collateral damage.
The lycanthropic biotech is not alone in pursuing masked therapies. Vir Biotechnology has revamped in recent years from an infectious disease focus to pursue dual-masked T-cell engagers, with Astellas Pharma recently buying in to the approach with a $1.7 billion global collaboration.
