ARYx axes staff as it negotiates new deals

Just a few weeks after completing a $35 million equity financing deal, Fremont, CA-based ARYx Therapeutics axed about a quarter of its staff, throttling down on its burn rate as it works to line up critical partnership deals on its experimental therapies. 

ARYx is cutting its workforce from 73 to 56, adding that it is closing in on pacts for three late-stage products: It's anti-arrythmic agent budiodarone, ATI-7505, for various gastrointestinal disorders, and tecarfarin, an oral anticoagulant. ARYx says it will take a $500,000 charge to complete the restructuring.

"Implementing these decisions that include saying goodbye to hard-working and dedicated colleagues is always the toughest part of managing a business," stated Dr. Paul Goddard, ARYx chairman and CEO. "We are making these changes because over the past several years our staffing level has been appropriate to complete the highly successful Phase 2 clinical trial on budiodarone that has positioned the compound for licensing, as well as the Phase 2/3 clinical trial that enrolled over 600 patients testing the safety and efficacy of tecarfarin."

- see the ARYx release

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