Polyphor ax­es staff as cash and op­tions dwin­dle

Polyphor’s re­struc­tur­ing is be­gin­ning.

The Swiss biotech, once a dar­ling of the coun­try’s pub­lic mar­kets, an­nounced that it was lay­ing off “up to” 29 em­ploy­ees af­ter its Phase III tri­al for its lead can­cer drug failed last month. It’s not clear how many em­ploy­ees the com­pa­ny cur­rent­ly has on staff.

The lay­offs are just one step in a broad­er ef­fort by the board to save what’s left of the strug­gling com­pa­ny. In a re­lease, they said the board “con­tin­ues its strate­gic as­sess­ment” of the biotech’s op­tions, with plans for an up­date be­fore Ju­ly. It’s not sim­ply a self-im­posed dead­line; Polyphor re­vealed in their an­nu­al fi­nan­cial state­ment in March that they on­ly had enough cash to last through Q3 of 2021.

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