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 from the Boston Globe
- check out the Panacos release

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