Genmab axing 300 as it shifts development work to vendors

Look for a spike in outsourcing at Genmab. The Danish antibody developer says it is reorganizing the company and turning to vendors to do more clinical development work after it axes 300 staff jobs and sells its U.S. manufacturing business.

"The workload for Genmab's development employees, in particular, has decreased and is expected to remain low as partners take on increasing responsibility for upcoming studies," the company said. "Genmab will adopt a more flexible model based on contracts with vendors to address varying demand for clinical development work going forward."

"It is vital that we refocus our energies on what Genmab is best at and what the pharmaceutical industry needs most - innovation," said Lisa N. Drakeman, Ph.D., the CEO of Genmab.  "The challenging demands on our industry require Genmab to take a hard look at our organization and continue to prioritize spending

Just last month the FDA approved Genmab's Arzerra, a leukemia drug partnered with GlaxoSmithKline. Glaxo says that it's confident that GenMab's restructuring won't affect their co-development work.

- read Genmab's release
- here's the story from Dow Jones