Cash-hungry Panacos slashes staff, looks for buyer

Panacos Pharmaceuticals is the latest small biotech company to bring out the axe as it battles a cash crunch. Panacos is laying off 18 of 33 workers as it undergoes a ritual ‘strategic review,' which includes a potential sale of all or part of the company.

The Watertown, MA-based biotech had to pay nearly $18 million last month to Hercules Technology Growth Capital after a loan deal was terminated. And now Panacos says it has only $4.7 million in the bank, leaving it scrambling to find funds in the worst credit crunch the industry has ever seen.

Panacos is developing antiviral drugs. Bevirimat (PA-457), Panacos' maturation inhibitor, is currently in Phase IIb clinical studies in HIV-positive patients.

"These actions are in line with our goal to secure partnerships or sale for our spectrum of HIV programs, including bevirimat, our second- and third-generation maturation inhibitors, as well as the oral fusion inhibitor program," said Panacos CEO Alan W. Dunton, MD.

- read the report [1] from the Boston Globe
- check out the Panacos release [2]

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Small biotechs outline harsh spending cuts [3]
More biotech bankruptcies on the horizon [4]
Economic crisis hammers small, mid-sized biotechs [5]
Panacos surges on HIV response data [6]
Panacos rallies on news its HIV drug hits primary endpoints [7]