Biotechs Trim Staff

Vaccine developer Avant Immunotherapeutics is cutting 30% of its staff and shuttering its St. Louis research facility in an effort to lower costs by 18% in the next two years. All research activities will be moved to the company's Needham, Mass., headquarters, which will house roughly 60 employees once the restructuring is complete in September. Avant will forgo investments in biodefense research and focus on viral and bacterial vaccines. Separately, Genaera is eliminating 30% of its workforce, or 10 employees, as it focuses its research on the development of trodusquemine for obesity and an anti-interleukin-9 antibody for the treatment of asthma.