MindMaze Trims Relief Staff and Aardvark Cuts Workforce Amid Prader-Willi Trial Problems

MindMaze Therapeutics has trimmed a small number of employees from Relief Therapeutics' legacy operations following their reverse merger, while most Relief staff were transferred to acquiring businesses.

MindMaze aims to dispose of Relief’s legacy operations and focus on its core digital neurology business, simplifying the organization and cutting costs.

Aardvark Therapeutics cut its workforce in June, reducing staff from 40 to 28 employees and consultants from 35 to 27, after pausing its Phase 3 HERO trial of ARD-101 for hyperphagia in Prader-Willi syndrome.

The FDA placed ARD-101 on clinical hold due to reversible cardiac signals seen in a healthy volunteer study, leading Aardvark to terminate the HERO and OLE trials and reassess the program’s next steps.

Aardvark recorded a Q2 2026 net loss of about $14.4 million, partly driven by severance and higher personnel costs before the headcount reduction, and remains in discussions with the FDA to resolve the clinical hold.