Layoffs aside, company throws party
SEATTLE, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- With $19 million due in June and layoffs just announced, Cell Therapeutics Inc. of Seattle still held a party for one of its drugs, it was reported Wednesday.
The company threw the affair for the drug Zevalin a week after announcing it would idle 31 employees, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
In January, the company filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying "we have a substantial amount of debt outstanding and our annual interest expense with respect to our debt is significant."
But the Seattle company went ahead with the $30,000 party featuring the San Francisco band Lepparella, an all-female group that covers Led Zeppelin songs, the report said.
The company plans to cut expenses 35 percent this year. And the party "was long planned before we made a business decision to reduce expenses," company spokesman Dan Eramian told the Post-Intelligencer.
Cell Therapeutics acquired Zevalin a year ago. The drug, which had $15 million in sales last year, is used for a treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
"We had a birthday party for the drug," Eramian said.
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