Avant cuts 30 per cent staff in 'painful' restructuring

The company said it will reduce its overall cost structure by approximately 18 per cent over the next two years as it refocuses resources on certain programmes, including viral and bacterial vaccines, but will drop its biodefence R&D activities as well as the running of further clinical trials for two of its leading drugs currently in development - CETi and TP10. "This restructuring, while painful, is important so we can focus our resources on those programs that can create the greatest value for us,"​ said Una Ryan, Avant's president and chief executive officer. The move comes on the heels of the firm's announcement that TP10, its lead complement inhibitor for the treatment of post-surgery heart attack, did not meet the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb study in female subjects undergoing high risk cardiac surgery. Avant also decided to stop the clinical development of CETi-1, its vaccine for cholesterol management which had reached the Phase II testing stage. CETi-1 is based on similar mechanism to Pfizer's torcetrapib, the development of which was halted amid safety concerns last December. As part of the restructuring, Avant also expects to move its research operations from its St Louis facility to its Needham, Massachusetts headquarters. Avant expects this to incur $1m (€0.8m) cash restructuring costs, most of which will be reflected in its operating results in the second and third quarters of 2007.