Dive Brief:
- Five Prime Therapeutics is cutting 41 jobs — mostly in research, pathology and manufacturing — to channel resources toward its pipeline of experimental cancer drugs.
- The move will save $10 million in fiscal year 2019, with more savings in future years, Five Prime said. The company expects to take pre-tax charges of about $2 million in the first quarter of 2019 to cover severance and other costs.
- The South San Francisco, California-based company expects to finish 2019 with between $148 million to $153 million in cash, equivalents and short-term securities, after closing out last year with $270 million in liquid holdings. That money should be "sufficient to fund programs through multiple data readouts," according to Five Prime's Jan. 15 statement.
Dive Insight:
The biotech is freeing up cash to make sure it can capitalize on a pipeline that includes five cancer treatments in clinical testing.
One of those therapies, cabiralizumab, is being tested in two different Phase 2 studies in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Another, bemarituzumab, is in a Phase 3 combination trial as a treatment for gastric cancer.
"This was a hard decision to make, but we believe that effective use of capital is crucial to supporting our strong pipeline of anti-cancer drug candidates," Five Prime CEO Aron Knickerbocker said in the company's statement. "We remain committed to successfully executing our clinical trials and advancing our later-stage research programs with the same intensity and quality for which Five Prime is known."
The company's pipeline also lists preclinical research into immuno-oncology antibodies in various tumor types.
Five Prime said the cuts will affect about 20% of its current workforce. At the end of 2017, the company reported having 216 full-time employees. It said it will also take a "disciplined approach" to any future hiring.
The company's share price sat at about $10 Wednesday. A year ago, shares topped $20.