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news.EntreMed, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, has announced that it will restructure and reduce its current workforce by approximately 60% across all areas of the business. The company expects to substantially implement this restructuring plan by December 31, 2008.
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As part of the restructuring and in order to further reduce costs, president and CEO, James Burns, will be leaving the company and resigning from the board of directors. In addition, CFO, Dane Saglio; senior vice president of R&D, Kenneth Bair; and senior vice president of corporate & business development, Thomas Bliss, will be leaving the company.
The senior management team going forward will include: Carolyn Sidor, vice president and chief medical officer; Mark Bray, vice president, research; Cynthia Hu, vice president, general counsel and secretary who has been appointed COO; and Kathy Wehmeir-Davis, controller who has been appointed principal accounting officer.
Ms Sidor will continue to lead the clinical development of ENMD-2076. Mr Bray will lead the research support for the company’s clinical activities. These research activities will concentrate primarily on those actions that will generate critical data to support and enhance the understanding of the mechanism of action and potential clinical utility of ENMD-2076, the company said.
EntreMed plans to focus its resources on its most promising near-term product candidate, ENMD-2076, an Aurora/angiogenesis kinase inhibitor, as part of the company’s overall plan to lower operating costs and preserve capital. ENMD-2076 is a unique small molecule kinase inhibitor which, in preclinical studies, has displayed an excellent activity profile and is currently in Phase I clinical trials for solid tumors and multiple myeloma. The company expects to have available clinical data in mid-2009.
While the company’s other product candidates, including MKC-1, ENMD-1198 and Panzem in rheumatoid arthritis, continue to be promising, the company will consider further clinical development only if additional financial resources are available. As a result, the company expects to reduce all research activities to the minimal level necessary to continue its efforts to realize their potential value through arrangements with third parties.
Michael Tarnow, chairman of the board, said: In addressing the near- to mid-term strategy for the company, the board concluded that focusing our human and financial resources on our most promising program and its upcoming clinical milestones is the best course for providing shareholder value.