Af­ter a bust with knee pain drug and 3 Covid-19 flops, Am­pio lays off staff; An­ti­body start­up nabs sec­ond deal in two weeks

Since at least April 2015, Am­pio Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals has reeled from one Phase III fail af­ter an­oth­er for its knee os­teoarthri­tis drug, known as Am­pi­on.

The is­sue has on­ly es­ca­lat­ed in re­cent months with a tri­fec­ta of hur­dles that are now send­ing the pen­ny stock biotech $AMPE in­to a down­ward spi­ral, with 10 of 18 em­ploy­ees be­ing laid off Tues­day, ac­cord­ing to an SEC fil­ing. Am­pio had $28.8 mil­lion at the end of March, enough to get in­to the sec­ond half of next year.

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