NEW YORK – Swedish diagnostics firm Immunovia announced on Tuesday that it plans to restructure its operations, which will include "significant layoffs" in both Sweden and the US.
The company will stop US commercialization of its ImmRay PanCan-d test to focus on the development and clinical testing of its next-generation pancreatic cancer detection test, it said in a statement. The test will provide results in patients who don't produce the tumor marker CA19-9 and reduce reliance on CA19-9, which it said has been a limitation of the PanCan-d test.
The new test will be performed on an undisclosed commercial platform and is expected to launch in 2024. On a conference call to discuss the announcement, Immunovia CEO Jeff Borcherding said that using a commercially available platform will allow the company to scale production more quickly and produce the test at a lower cost. The firm is looking at multiple platforms and considering the number of biomarkers included in the platform and the cost of running the test on each platform, he added.
"We are very excited about the potential of the new test to deliver high accuracy across the full spectrum of high-risk individuals," Borcherding said in a statement. "The test currently in development gives us the best opportunity to demonstrate significant improvements in patient outcomes, which is necessary to secure broader reimbursement of our test in the US," he added.
The restructuring and layoffs will lower the company's cash burn rate and extend its cash reserves into 2024, Immunovia said. It did not disclose the number of employees it expects to terminate, but Borcherding said on the call that the layoffs would occur across a variety of departments including sales, customer service, and operations.
In January, the company announced that it would lay off research and development employees from its Swedish operations to better focus on US commercialization of the ImmRay PanCan-d test. In June 2022, the firm reported partly inconclusive results from a study of the test but said it would continue its US reimbursement efforts.