Corixa chops jobs to cut losses – Hamilton MT jobs not threatened

Corixa, one of Seattle’s top biotech companies, has unloaded its slow-selling cancer drug and cut 160 jobs to limit a tide of losses.

The company said yesterday it is handing over its worldwide rights to Bexxar, a treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, to its partner, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.

Corixa, which paid about $570 million in stock to acquire Bexxar’s developer four years ago, said it "will transfer" the drug to GlaxoSmithKline.

In return, it is shedding the expense of further developing Bexxar, and it stands to receive some milestone payments and royalties on future sales. The transfer will take place at year-end.

Corixa Chief Executive Steve Gillis said the company is shutting down operations in South San Francisco and letting go about 100 employees there whose jobs depended on Bexxar.

In Seattle, about 60 people will lose jobs, and layoffs will affect every department, Gillis said. The cuts will reduce Corixa’s work force by 43 percent, leaving it with 220 workers in Seattle and Hamilton, Mont.

By Luke Timmerman
Seattle Times business reporter

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002118647_corixa14.html

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Corixa announces major lay-offs; local jobs not threatened

By JENNY JOHNSON Staff Reporter

Corixa Corp. reduced its workforce by approximately 43 percent in restructuring at facilities on the West Coast. But not in Hamilton.

Following a transfer of Corixa’s development and commercialization of the commercial drug Bexxar to another company, Corixa eliminated approximately 160 positions at its South San Francisco and Seattle facilities, according to company officials.

http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2004/12/16/news/news01.txt