More job cuts at Nastech as stock continues slide

With its stock in a swoon, Nastech has cut 50 more positions. That's on top of the 72 jobs cut late last year after the Bothell, WA-based company announced that Procter & Gamble had pulled out of its partnership to develop a nasal spray therapy for osteoporosis. Since that time, the company's stock has lost 85 percent of their value, forcing the company to continue to restructure in order to cut costs.

"Our market capitalization has gone down from $300 million to $60 million," Gordon Brandt, Nastech's president, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It's difficult to raise capital, so we need to conserve the cash we have." Brandt says the company is also pushing ahead with programs that include a nasal spray for obesity and insulin nasal spray. It is also pushing ahead with plans to spin off its RNAi business, which has 45 workers.

- see the release on the cuts
- read the article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer