Vical cuts staff, ditches candidate to ‘conserve capital’
The San Diego-headquartered firm announced the restructuring this week that will see staff reduced by 54% from 74 to 34 employees – attracting personnel-related charges of approximately $1.1m (€886k).
Vical also said it is terminating all activities related to the ASP0113 programme licensed to Astellas Pharma, following Phase III trial results released January 22.
ASP0113 is a DNA vaccine under development for herpes virus cytomegalovirus (CMV)-seropositive hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients.
The firms said while the vaccine was “generally well tolerated”, the candidate did not meet its endpoints in the Helios trial.
“We are disappointed that the results did not demonstrate a significant improvement in overall survival and reduction in CMV end-organ disease,” said Astellas’ president of development Bernhardt G. Zeiher.
HSV-2 and antifungal studies
Vical said the restructuring will “conserve capital” and allow for increased focus on antifungal drug candidate VL-2397 and HSV-2 therapeutic vaccine VCL-HB01.
“We have carefully evaluated our organisation and priorities and are restructuring to extend our cash runway to ensure that our promising HSV-2 vaccine candidate and VL-2397 antifungal drug product candidate is adequately resourced to maximize shareholder value,” said CEO Vijay Samant.
The firm expects to launch a Phase II trial of VL-2397 – indicated for the treatment of patients with invasive fungal infections – in the first quarter of 2018.
VCL-HB01, which is indicated to treat patients with symptomatic genital herpes infections, is currently in a Phase II trial.
