Employees affected by the reduction have been offered severance and outplacement support. The estimated termination charges will be approximately $1.1 million. Suspending the development of Actilon is expected to eliminate planned program expenses of $15 million, the company said.
Coley commented that it was a strategic decision in order to focus resources towards discovering and developing its TLR Therapeutics and its preclinical pipeline of synthetic RNA-based drugs. TLR Therapeutics are a new class of investigational drug candidates that direct the human immune system to fight cancers, infectious diseases and respiratory disorders.
The decision to suspend its development of Actilon was also reached based on clinical data obtained from two separate trials evaluating the drug for use among hepatitis C patients, which showed that the drug was not effective
The company said that the drugs development would be suspended until it found a partner to share in development costs or until there is a stronger market opportunity for this type of agent.