Looking to save $17.35 million annually, Denmark's NeuroSearch announced today that 's cutting 20 percent of its workforce. The changes come as NeuroSearch attempts to throw resources behind Huntexil, an orphan product for Huntington's disease. The company wants to file Huntexil with regulators and gain approval as soon as possible. It also plans to build its own in-house sales and marketing departments for both the North American and European markets.
NeuroSearch's CNS and ion channel-based drug discovery activities will be organized in a new division called NsDiscovery. NsDiscovery will manage the company's standing alliances with Eli Lilly and Janssen as well as a license agreement with Abbott. NeuroSearch Sweden, meanwhile, will retain a CNS-focused research unit separate from NsDiscovery.
"The re-organization of NeuroSearch into two separate business units with individual business models will enable us to make better use of our resources in support of our corporate strategy," explained CEO Patrik Dahlen. "We remain fully committed to bringing Huntexil to the market as soon as possible to benefit patients with Huntington's disease. We look forward to the planned dialogue with regulators in the months to come and to defining the best path towards registration of the drug as the first product to be commercialised by NeuroSearch."
- here's Neurosearch's release
- read the Reuters article for more