With an eye to extending its cash runway past 2013, Salt Lake City-based Myriad Pharmaceuticals announced this morning that it's axing 21 employees and suspending work on its HIV programs while concentrating its resources on the developer's cancer drug pipeline. The HIV work will now be put on the block for potential partners to bid on.
"Over the last six years Myriad Pharmaceuticals has generated a deep pipeline of oncology assets. After conducting an exhaustive review of our development portfolio and business operations, we have decided to refocus our clinical efforts on oncology, where we believe we can maximize the return on our investments," stated Myriad CEO Adrian Hobden, Ph.D. "Both MPC-4326 and the novel, pre-clinical maturation inhibitor, MPI-0461359, have demonstrated promising safety and efficacy profiles. However, we have decided to suspend further development of these HIV compounds and will seek to partner these compounds as we apply our human and financial resources to our cancer programs."
Looking forward, Myriad plans to expand the Azixa clinical program to include a two-armed temozolomide combination study for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, further advance its Hsp90 inhibitor, MPC-3100 and designate MPC-9528 as an IND-candidate.
- here's Myriad's release
- and here's the Reuters story