Danish Pharma Company Restructures, Cuts Workforce

NeuroSearch, a biopharmaceutical company in Copenhagen, Denmark said today the company would restructure its operations to focus more on developing drugs for the central nervous system. This reorganization of the enterprise, says NeuroSearch, will lead to a 20 percent reduction in its workforce.

The goal of the restructuring is to accelerate development of its lead asset Huntexil, a product the company says holds promise as an important therapeutic advance for patients with Huntington’s disease. NeuroSearch wants to ensure that optimal resources are placed behind Huntexil on its path towards commercialization.

This process, says the company, includes working towards regulatory approval as soon as possible and building an in-house marketing and sales organization to cover key markets in North America and Europe. NeuroSearch plans to advance the development of other speciality drugs for the central nervous system to follow after Huntexil.

Neurosearch’s drug discovery work in Copenhagen, including central nervous system and ion channel research, will be organized in a new division called NsDiscovery. The new division will continue to secure partner alliances with pharmaceutical companies, such as the current alliances with Eli Lilly and Janssen, as well as the license agreement with Abbott.  NeuroSearch’s subsidiary in Sweden will continue as a speciality central nervous system research unit organized as part of the pharmaceutical business and separate from NsDiscovery.

NsDiscovery will manage pipeline candidates in other specialties as collaborations with other companies, and will not alone make further investments in them. This new strategy applies to tesofensine for the treatment of obesity, in which the company is seeking partners for further development.

The planned restructuring will include a staff reduction of about 20 percent. Combined with other initiatives, the staff reduction is expected to reduce NeuroSearch’s annual cost base by approximately DKK 100 million (USD 17.4 million), with full benefits realized in 2012.

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