The reduction in employees is expected to help Peregrine to have net cost savings between $3.7m and $4.3m in fiscal year 2018. It will also allow to reduce annualized operating expenses starting in fiscal year 2019.
Peregrine has reduced its R&D personnel by 50% to 11 employees, as part of the cost saving initiatives.
Personnel supporting Peregrine’s wholly-owned subsidiary Avid Bioservices’ contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business has been decreased by 20% to 184 employees to coordinate operations.
The company has reduced selling, general and administrative (SG&A) personnel by % to 49 employees to pursue leaner support operations. These measured are expected to save between $1.1m and $1.7m during the second quarter of fiscal year 2018.
Peregrine president, CEO and director Steven King said: "I would like to personally express my appreciation to the affected employees for their commitment and meaningful contributions to the Peregrine and Avid businesses.
“We remain committed to capitalizing on long-term opportunities available to our CDMO business and pursuing the best path forward for our R&D business."
Peregrine offers CDMO services, including cGMP manufacturing and development capabilities, for the development of pharmaceutical products.
The firm is also working to assess its immunotherapy candidate bavituximab in combination with immune stimulating therapies to treat various cancers and developing its advanced exosome technology for the detection and monitoring of cancer.
Avid Bioservices offers a range of process development, cGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing services for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries.
Its services comprised of cGMP clinical and commercial product manufacturing, purification, bulk packaging, stability testing and regulatory strategy, submission and support.
Image: Peregrine provides CDMO services for the development of pharmaceutical products. Photo: courtesy of jk1991 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.