Acusphere slashes staff as funding flounders
The action will result in 40 employees losing their jobs in the next few weeks, with the remaining staff relocating to the company’s manufacturing facility in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, US.
Through these cutbacks Acusphere is expecting to realise annual savings of over $8m (€6.3m), which the company hopes will give it sufficient funds to continue with the regulatory filing for Imagify.
This will be the focus of the company for the foreseeable future, with Imagify, a minimally invasive way of evaluating a patient's risk heart attack, taking precedence over development of therapeutics using the company’s drug delivery microspheres.
Sherri Oberg, Acusphere’s president and CEO, said: “These decisions are extremely difficult but both appropriate and necessary given the current financing environment for life sciences companies, our continued belief that Imagify will be approved and our improved prospects for financing on more favourable terms after reaching agreement with US Food and Drug Administration on the regulatory path forward for Imagify.”
The company anticipates that the workforce reduction will result in annual savings of $3.9m, with a one-time charge of $300,000 to be paid this quarter. Further annual net savings of $3.6m will result from the termination of the lease of the Watertown, Massachusetts headquarters.
Acusphere has also filed a form 15 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which deregisters its shares and exempts it from further reporting, resulting in savings of $800,000.
