Friday, December 4, 2009

Medafor publish commentary of Cryolife battle

Medafor have published a pdf document on their website detailing their current view of the on-going battle with Cryolife. In the document they accuse Cryolife (amongst a host of contractual and legal issues) of attempting to initiate a lawsuit to force a sale after the Board rejected a second offer by Cryolife to purchase Medafor. Medafor have also engaged in a lawsuit charging their previous CEO and Chairman, Dick Zerban and Cryolife CEO, Steven Anderson alleging the wrongful transfer of shares. The full document is available on the first page of the Medafor website.

Zymogenetics cuts back staff to focus on Recothrom

ZymoGenetics is cutting all of its immunology work along with 15 percent of its jobs, or 52 positions. That's in addition to the 161 jobs the developer cut in April when it decided to bow out of the cancer research business. All ongoing immunology discovery research programs will be discontinued; however, the company will keep the research capabilities necessary to support the ongoing development programs for current product candidates.
According to the regulatory filing, cutting new immunology research will allow the developer to focus on its sole marketed product, Recothrom Thrombin, a treatment for surgical bleeding. It will also give ZymoGenetics more resources for developing and commercializing its pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates. In a statement emailed to Xconomy, a spokesperson said that the company has abandoned the strategy of discovering and licensing out many early-stage candidates. Now it will focus on fewer programs that it will advance to later stages. The spokesperson added that the company is focusing on drug candidates that have the most potential over the next three to four years.
ZymoGenetics's reductions will result in an annual expense savings of $8 million to $10 million, in addition to the estimated $30 million in savings generated by the April restructuring. This round of layoffs leaves the developer with about 300 employees, according to Xconomy.