ARRY lays of 40 employees [10%] to reduce drug discovery efforts and staff so they can stretch another 3 quarters or so. Partnering is supposed to accelerate and they expect to draw in about $80M.
denver.bizjournals.com
Array BioPharma Inc. has laid off 40 employees, or about 10 percent of its work force, and scaled back some research spending into biotech drug discovery, the company reported Friday.
The Boulder-based research company (NASDAQ: ARRY) said it’s narrowing its focus in the next two years mainly to treatments likely to draw partners that will help fund getting the drugs approved and to market.
CEO Robert Conway, in a written statement, said the moves are meant to speed development of its most promising experimental treatments for cancer, inflammation and diabetes, while limiting expenses.
“It is important to conserve our cash resources in these difficult times for the financial markets and focus our efforts on advancing our clinical programs through proof-of-concept to maximize their value,” Conway said.
The company has long done early research into biotech drugs, and formed partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies to help fund clinical trials proving the drugs’ safety and effectiveness, in exchange for rights to the treatments if they reached approval for commercial sale.
In recent years, the company expanded research into drugs it sought to bring to market itself. The company will focus less on that aspect of its business now, though Array said it will continue to work on eight such compounds it considers most promising.
Array is cutting its planned spending on operations by one-third, from $30 million a quarter to $20 million a quarter, the company said.
Array had $101 million in cash and equivalents as of Sept. 30. It drew $40 million from its credit lines in December,
The company predicts it can secure $80 million worth of new partnership deals and milestone payments from its existing partnerships in 2009. |
