China Financial Daily

XenoPort layoffs:XenoPort plans to lay off half of the employees
Drug developer XenoPort Inc (XNPT) announced that in order to save money, will cut half of the workers and the abolition of drug development, and will devote all its efforts has now entered clinical trials on drugs on.

The company will cut about 110 jobs and is expected to move to make annual savings of approximately 15.6 million U.S. dollars, even though half of the fiscal year will be included in 4.2 million U.S. dollars in restructuring expenses and other expenses.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delayed the company’s drug candidates Horizant approval, which is a restless syndrome treatment of lower extremity products. FDA cited the mice showed islet B-cell tumors occur animal test results, and said that prior to approval of the drug may be required XenoPort to conduct further research.

As of the end of 2009, the company has 219 employees. By working with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a co-operation, XenoPort is developing Horizant, as a treatment of moderate to severe lower limb restless syndrome, as well as neuropathic pain drugs. The company also said plans to complete a drug treatment of heartburn in the medium-term tests, and began a medium-term treatment of Parkinson’s disease trial.