Pivot or Close: What the Last 90 Days of a Biotech Wind-Down Look Like

David Esposito has built biotechs to exit and taken biotechs into bankruptcy. Pavel Khrimian spent most of 2026 winding down the company he co-founded, after a pharma collaboration collapsed at the diligence stage. They talk about what the last ninety days actually look like, the three questions that separate a pivot from a closure, and the obligation to patients that outlives the company. Lori asks about the ninety days before the decision rather than the day of it, and both answers land in the same place: the data was there earlier, and it did not arrive labeled. A manufacturing delay. A term sheet that was supposed to be a hundred million, drops to eighty, then oversubscribes to a hundred and twenty five. A program that is performing but is no longer the priority. Khrimian reduces the closure decision to three questions. Do you have a credible hypothesis or asset. Do you have the cash to test it. Do you have the time and money to reach a realistic value inflection. Two answers of no and you are closing rather than pivoting. Esposito's version is structural: after a couple of rounds of capital a company has often prioritized itself into one swim lane, and the data then makes the decision for it. Neither treats the people as a footnote. Patients on therapy have to stay on therapy, which turns a wind-down into an operational problem of narrowing sites and continuing to ship drug. Employees who did nothing wrong need somewhere to land. (00:00) Why founders are drawn back to biotech(00:38) How this sponsored episode worked(02:04) Exits, launches, and companies taken into bankruptcy(03:37) Letting go of the obsession with control(06:04) Reading a new data point and deciding whether to pivot(07:35) Pay attention to every data point, not just your own(10:26) Build a base case, then watch it move(11:26) The acute study, and the pivot to chronic indications(12:31) Why it is always about the team(16:06) Healthy tension between science, finance and strategy(17:47) Doing everything right and still losing(19:05) A word from Lab Thread(19:28) The ninety days before the decision(21:21) When a pharma collaboration collapses in diligence(23:31) Optimism as a gear, measured against cash(25:05) Pivot or close: the three questions(26:54) The binary swim lane, and the calls that are never clear(29:21) What the CAR-T pivot into autoimmune teaches(30:52) You are not rewarded for a platform anymore(31:57) Carrying the news(33:14) Two hundred grand in the bank and no January calendar(34:42) Investors, patients, and your team at the same time(35:42) Take your own shoes off first(36:42) The obligation to patients still on therapy(39:20) Helping your team land somewhere good(40:17) What inspired you to take this path(44:12) The hardest decision you have had to make(47:10) Thank yous David Esposito is President and Chief Executive Officer of ONL Therapeutics.https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidesposito2/ Pavel Khrimian is Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Deka Biosciences.https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavel-khrimian-3219935/ This episode was made possible by Lab Thread. Nobody went into science for the admin. Lab Thread is the integrated lab management platform that scientists actually enjoy; Built to fit the way you work, from first idea to final report. Everything connected. Nothing lost. Never in your way.Visit labthread.com to learn more, or book a demo Episode page: https://opendoorsalon.com/biotech-wind-down-pivot-or-close/Newsletter: https://opendoorsalon.substack.com/