LAVAL, Qc – Labopharm Inc. (TSX:DDS) says its joint venture with Italy’s Gruppo Angelini has cut its sales force in half to 65 in a move to reduce costs.
The Montreal-area drug maker said late Thursday the Angelini Labopharm joint venture, which sells the antidepressant Oleptro in the U.S., has cut its sales force to 65 from 130 to reduce operating costs.
The cut is effective July 1 and is expected to result in annual cost savings to Angelini Labopharm of US$10.6 million, Labopharm said.
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Laval, Que.-based Labopharm is currently reviewing its assets for a potential sale or merger as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts and is trying to preserve cash.
The drug developer has said it could potentially sell the rights to its painkiller Intellitab as well as time-release drug technology called polymeric nano-delivery.
The company had also entered into talks with Angelini in hopes of reworking the terms of the agreement to save cash, and stopped funding the U.S. venture in March.
Labopharm, which has cut its own workforce as well to save cash, reported last month it lost $12.4 million in the latest quarter, compared to $8.2 million in the same quarter of 2010.
The wider loss was partly due to restructuring costs.
The company has been trying to stop its mounting financial losses, which added up to $28.9 million in 2010 and $26.1 million the year before.
It also appointed Mark D’Souza as its new CEO after James Howard-Tripp left for undisclosed reasons.
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