Sage shrinks work­force by 40% in light of ma­jor de­pres­sion drug re­jec­tion 

Sage Ther­a­peu­tics is lay­ing off 40% of its work­force this quar­ter in the wake of the FDA’s re­jec­tion of the biotech’s ma­jor de­pres­sive dis­or­der drug ear­li­er this month.

The com­pa­ny’s pill was ap­proved for treat­ing post­par­tum de­pres­sion, to be launched next quar­ter as Zurzu­vae, but Sage and its part­ner Bio­gen were de­pend­ing on the MDD la­bel for a broad­er mar­ket roll­out. The re­jec­tion forced an im­me­di­ate re­think at Cam­bridge, MA-based Sage, which on Thurs­day said two of its ear­ly em­ploy­ees were de­part­ing: chief sci­en­tif­ic of­fi­cer Al Ro­bichaud and de­vel­op­ment chief Jim Do­her­ty. SVP of med­ical af­fairs Mark Pol­lack is al­so leav­ing. The biotech em­ployed 689 peo­ple as of Feb. 8.

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