Neumora Therapeutics announced it is discontinuing navacaprant, its kappa opioid receptor antagonist for major depressive disorder, after two Phase 3 failures. The KOASTAL-2 and KOASTAL-3 studies did not deliver statistically significant improvement at six weeks versus placebo (and showed numerically worse outcomes in KOASTAL-3), following the earlier KOASTAL-1 setback. The company’s stock fell sharply in premarket trading as the layoffs plan followed. Neumora said it will lay off 35% of its workforce, projecting annual savings of about $10 million. The company attributed the restructuring to runway preservation as it shifts attention to its remaining clinical pipeline, including NMRA-511 for Alzheimer’s disease agitation, the schizophrenia program NMRA-898, and the obesity candidate NMRA-215. Analysts cited prior skepticism about the class and referenced efficacy disappointments seen with discontinued KOR programs. The move underlines how quickly capital and labor can reallocate once late-stage clinical readouts miss key endpoints, and how biotech investors are increasingly treating Phase 3 results as “clearing events” for strategy and valuation.