Oscient said that the employees affected by the restructuring will be offered severance benefits. The company is also eliminating approximately 25 positions which have been vacant.
Following the staff reductions, the company will have approximately 35 employees at its offices in Waltham, Massachusetts and Skillman, New Jersey; and approximately 170 field employees across the US.
In addition, Oscient has engaged Broadpoint Capital to advise the company on strategic options, including the potential sale of the company.
Steven Rauscher, president and CEO of Oscient, said: Given current capital market constraints and our limited cash resources, we determined that the best way to position our organization for a potential partnership or acquisition was to take the difficult steps to realign our commercial organization and reduce cash required for operations.
Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company marketing two FDA-approved products in the United States: ANTARA (fenofibrate) capsules, a cardiovascular product and FACTIVE (gemifloxacin mesylate) tablets, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic.