Cost-cutting strategies vary among firms as they seek to reduce cash burn rate.
SurModics is changing its organizational structure, reducing its workforce, and vacating a leased facility.
Going forward, the company will be composed of four business units: cardiovascular, ophthalmology, in vitro technologies, and Brookwood Pharmaceuticals. The drug delivery, hydrophilic technologies, regenerative technologies, and orthopedics business units will be eliminated, and those employees will be reassigned within the company.
SurModics plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 5% and vacate its leased facility in Eden Prairie, MN. The firm expects to save approximately $2 million on an annualized basis as a result of these measures.
Vical will reduce its staff by 29 employees, approximately 20% of its total workforce, and accelerate closure of a research facility. Following the restructuring, the company will have approximately 120 employees and expects to reduce future net losses and cash burn by approximately $4 million annually.
The restructuring is designed to focus the company’s efforts on its most advanced product development programs: its Allovectin-7 immunotherapeutic is currently in a Phase III trial in patients with advanced metastatic melanoma, and its DNA vaccine for cytomegalovirus is currently in a Phase II trial in stem cell transplant recipients.
CombinatoRx will cut its Cambridge, MA, workforce by approximately 30 employees, bringing the total workforce reductions taken lately to about 65%. Approximately 55 employees will remain after the restructuring, focused primarily on research activities and partnering product assets.
These measures should allow the company to operate without additional equity financing for at least four more years, it reports.
