Nearly one month ago, Santhera admitted defeat for its Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) drug idebenone, culling the program.
At the time, Santhera said that a “restructuring” was coming, with its focus now centered on another DMD hopeful, vamorolone, as well as lonodelestat, which is targeting lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
Vamorolone, a nonhormonal steroid modulator, is not an internal program, but rather one that Santhera nabbed in August from ReveraGen BioPharma, and will likely prove pivotal to its future.
It’s currently in a make-or-break phase 3 trial that is due to deliver top-line data in the second quarter of 2021. Lonodelestat, meanwhile, is in phase 1b in cystic fibrosis.
But with the focus now on these drugs and all clinical work on idebenone out the window, the Swiss biotech is taking the ax (PDF) to 50 staffers to save cash, reducing its workers down to 47 full-timers.
On top of this, Kristina Sjöblom Nygren, M.D., its chief medical officer and head of development, is leaving “for family reasons and to pursue other opportunities,” according to a release, which means she will likely turn up somewhere else.
“The search for a successor to secure a seamless transition has been initiated,” the biotech added in a statement.
This will save the company around $10 million a year, as well as saving cash by not working on idebenone (aka Puldysa). To help stay afloat, it’s borrowed an extra $16 million. Altogether, it hopes this will see it continue on to the six-month data readout for vamorolone next year.
“Moving forward as a company with a focus on vamorolone, upon acquisition of global rights in all indications through agreements with Idorsia and ReveraGen and the termination of the Puldysa program, has forced us to take difficult decisions but at the same time has opened up new opportunities,” said Dario Eklund, CEO of Santhera.
“Regretfully, we have to let go of many of our valued colleagues and I thank all of them for their dedication and efforts to do the very best for patients. In particular and on behalf of the entire management team, I would like to thank Kristina, who has played an important role in shaping and executing our clinical development strategy, for her valuable contributions to our Company. We wish her and others leaving all the best for their future.”