Small biotechs outline harsh spending cuts

The San Francisco Chronicle compared many of the biotech companies in its area to a spore; they're planning to cut costs and lie low until new money flows, just like a spore waits for fresh moisture to revive.

Adversity of any type can be especially brutal these days. The day before Thanksgiving, Introgen Therapeutics announced plans to cut two thirds of its staff, reducing its head count to 15 about two months after the FDA rejected Advexin. CEO David Nance also resigned. Introgen's shares have plunged 94 percent this year.

Switzerland's Arpida announced on Thanksgiving Day that it will lay off 60 people as it considers how to respond to the FDA's rejection of Iclaprim, a new antibiotic proposed for serious skin infections.

And the day after Thanksgiving Hemispherx Biopharma announced a cost reduction program. The developer announced that "a senior staff will be paid as much as 50 percent of their compensation in restricted stock starting no later than 1 January 2009."

- read the report in the San Francisco Chronicle
- check out Introgen's release
- check out the Dow Jones report on Arpida
- here's Hemispherx's release

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