Amylin axes 340 jobs in San Diego

Hit by declining Byetta sales, Amylin Pharmaceuticals is cutting 340 jobs in San Diego and reducing anticipated 2009 cash expenditures by more than $80 million. Sales of the company's top drug, Byetta, dropped on news that the treatment could be linked with an increased risk of acute pancreatitis in some patients. The restructuring and workforce reductions impact administration, operations and R&D positions, the company said in a statement. However, it won't affect development of once-weekly Byetta. Amylin still has 900 employees in San Diego and 1,800 worldwide.

"Sales revenues have not met the expectations we had when we scaled up our organization," said said Daniel M. Bradbury, president and CEO at Amylin. "Today's actions will bring operating expenses more in line with revenue and enable us to continue to achieve our business goals of increasing sales of Byetta and Symlin and bringing exenatide once weekly to market as quickly as possible."

- see Amylin's release

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