The debut day of OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals turned out to be an unpleasant one for employees, as half of them lost their jobs this morning. Cutting 49 percent of its staff leaves the company with 27 people.
“We have chosen to swiftly implement the restructuring we deem necessary to effectively utilize cash assets while maintaining the resources to advance our priority clinical programs,” said Scott Cormack, OncoGenex’s chief executive.
The company’s press release did not outline how the layoffs were divided between the company’s Vancouver, B.C., headquarters and its lab operations in Bothell.
OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals was created this week by the merger of Bothell’s Sonus Pharmaceuticals with OncoGenex Technologies. This morning, the newly combined company’s stock, OGXI, debuted on the Nasdaq market. Thanks to a one-for-18 reverse stock split, shares began trading at $5. As of 11:30 a.m., the share price had fallen nearly 4 percent to $4.81.
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