In­ovio ax­es staff, chops R&D pro­grams in chase for elu­sive com­mer­cial win — though there's still a lot on their plate

Ral­ly­ing around its late-stage HPV projects, In­ovio Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals $INO is slash­ing 28% of its work­force — around 80 staffers — and ax­ing sev­er­al ear­ly-stage pro­grams to bring its burn rate down by 25%.

The Ply­mouth Meet­ing, PA-based biotech in­sists that the sole mo­tive is to con­sol­i­date its scat­tered pipeline, cre­at­ing “a more ef­fi­cient or­ga­ni­za­tion with greater fi­nan­cial flex­i­bil­i­ty and a longer run­way,” ac­cord­ing to CEO Joseph Kim. While In­ovio end­ed the first quar­ter with $128.0 mil­lion in cash and cash equiv­a­lents, though, its stock has tum­bled 28% since the be­gin­ning of the year to $3. It’s fall­en an­oth­er 13% pre-mar­ket.

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