Evotec shutters Renovis in cost-cutting move

Slightly less than a year after plunking down $152 million in stock to buy South San Francisco-based Renovis, Evotec is shuttering the developer and laying off 45 staffers. The move is part of the German company's new plans to reduce expenses.

Evotec says that Renovis is to be "wound down with immediate effect."

That's a brief epitaph for a biotech company that once had a payroll of 100 workers and bright prospects in the neurological and inflammatory disease fields. In late 2006, though, Renovis' lead drug failed a clinical trial, triggering a 40 percent reduction in staff.

The San Francisco Business Times notes that Renovis was started by Corey Goodman, who set up Exelixis and then headed up Pfizer's biotech venture in San Francisco. He recently announced an unexplained departure from that job.

At the time of the buyout, Evotec Chief Executive Jorn Aldag said the buyout would create "a global biopharmaceutical company with world-class discovery capabilities."

- see Evotec's release
- read the report from the San Francisco Business Times

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Renovis pares work force in restructuring (2007)
Evotec adds drugs in Renovis buyout (2007)