Targeted therapeutics company Celldex has announced it is reducing its employee numbers by 20% after a cancer drug failed to meet its primary endpoint.
The company recently published the results of the randomised Phase IIb Study of glembatumumab vedotin compared with Xeloda (capecitabine) in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancers that overexpress gpNMB. The trial failed to meet its primary endpoint of progression-free survival.
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Researchers also observed that there was no significant advantage for glembatumumab vedotin in key secondary endpoints, including overall response rate, duration of response and overall survival. Celldex has therefore made the decision to discontinue the glembatumumab vedotin programme across all indications.
As a result, the New Jersey-based company said it plans to reduce its 2018 budgeted workforce by 59 positions, including 41 employees that will be terminated and 18 open positions that will not be filled, resulting in a workforce of 148 employees.
In a statement, Celldex said that it was ‘evaluating our operational and workforce needs to extend our financial resources and direct them to continued pipeline advancement’.
In a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, The company estimated that cash severance payments and other costs related to the restructuring would cost around $1.3m.
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By GlobalDataCelldex faced similar problems in 2016 when its promising drug candidate Rintega (rindopepimut) missed its primary endpoint of overall survival in a Phase III trial in patients with EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma multiforme.
The company still has several candidates in its pipeline including Varlilumab, a CD27 agonist, currently completing a Phase II study in combination with Opdivo, CDX-3379, an ErbB3 inhibitor that is expected to complete enrolment in the first stage of a Phase II study this year, and a dendritic cell mobilizer CDX-301.
Shares in Celldex plummeted by 40% in premarket trading on Monday.
The company plans to publish its first quarter 2018 financial results in early May.
