Fulcrum’s stock plunged after it announced it was discontinuing its sole clinical-stage sickle cell candidate pociredir and pursuing strategic alternatives, following a regulatory finding that left “no viable regulatory path forward.” The company said FDA staff worried about malignancy risk in light of emerging secondary blood cancer cases tied to Ipsen’s withdrawn Tazverik. Fulcrum argued that pociredir’s mechanism differs mechanistically from tazemetostat’s EZH2 target, but the FDA still determined the risk profile could not be sufficiently differentiated. Fulcrum disclosed it had roughly $0.3 billion in cash as of March 31 and said it would work to preserve capital while evaluating potential transactions. Analysts described the move as a major reset for the program despite early fetal hemoglobin–raising signals reported for pociredir.