Verge Genomics rebranded as Verge Labs and changed course following an early clinical trial failure for VRG50635 in ALS. The company said it laid off roughly 90% of staff after concluding the program did not deliver the intended patient benefit. Instead of continuing as an AI-first therapeutics developer, Verge Labs will position itself as a data and modeling provider for drug developers, building on its foundation-model approach to human disease biology. It said its platform will be monetized through dataset and insight access, including target identification, patient matching, and biomarker prediction. For the sector, the pivot adds a high-profile example of “learn-and-replatform” after an AI-discovered candidate misses in human testing, with implications for how investors evaluate asset risk versus platform monetization.