Berkeley, CA-based Xoma is cutting 42 percent of it workforce--144 jobs--most of which are in manufacturing. Xoma, which is developing the anti-inflammatory antibody XOMA 052, will retain 197 employees as it continues work on the drug. It has sufficient quantities of the experimental drug on hand to complete planned studies, and will maintain its pilot scale manufacturing plant and the potential to resume large scale manufacturing in the future. The company said the cuts would reduce costs by $27 million by 2Q 2009.
"We have made a difficult, but necessary, decision driven by extremely challenging market conditions. Although manufacturing was fully utilized in the fourth quarter, forecasted manufacturing demand in 2009 will not meet expectations. The reductions are focused on manufacturing and related areas and associated general and administrative support. Today's actions will bring operating expenses more in line with expected revenue," said Xoma CEO Steven Engle.
- see Xoma's release
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