Tapestry to cut non-clinical work force

The biopharmaceutical company expects to eliminate 14 positions including executive and non-executive employees in all areas of operations. All clinical development staff will remain with the company.

Tapestry expects savings from this downsizing of personnel, and other cost saving measures, to total approximately $11 million (excluding the impact of eliminated capital expenditures) through the end of 2008. There will be a one-time cost of approximately $.47 million to implement this downsizing.

Tapestry plans to focus its resources on TPI 287, a proprietary next-generation taxane, the company’s lead clinical compound. This compound was designed to overcome multiple drug resistance in solid tumors that are innately resistant to taxane therapy or have become resistant to taxanes following exposure to chemotherapy drugs.

Leonard Shaykin, chairman and CEO of Tapestry, said: “We continue to recruit patients for lead drug’s (TPI 287) prostate and pancreatic cancer trials and we are moving forward with plans to initiate several other, previously announced studies. Tapestry expects to report encouraging data from the Phase II prostate trial during our quarterly earnings call on November 5th and at our presentation at the Rodman & Renshaw conference in New York City on the same day.”