In June this year, Pfizer announced disappointing results for the CIFREO phase 3 study. The clinical trial was evaluating the company’s gene therapy candidate, fordadistrogene movaparvovec, in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic disease that causes severe muscle weakness, making most individuals with the condition lose their ability to walk by the age of 12.
The gene therapy failed to meet the study’s primary endpoint of improving motor function in boys between 4 and 7 years of age when compared to a placebo. The treatment also missed key secondary endpoints related to 10-meter walk velocity and time to rise from the floor.
At the time of the announcement, the company stated it was “evaluating appropriate next steps for the program.”
Six weeks later, Pfizer is announcing its decision to discontinue the development of the DMD gene therapy program. As a result, the company will be letting go of 150 employees involved in the DMD gene therapy program and other site operations at its Sanford site in North Carolina, US.
In addition, Pfizer has taken a $230 million charge for asset impairment and other related costs associated with the discontinuation of the DMD program. The company also expects to record a charge of $400 million in the third quarter of 2024 after making a decision in July to sell one of its facilities due to the gene therapy program being discontinued.
Pfizer has been running a campaign to significantly cut costs since October 2023, which has resulted in multiple layoffs since the beginning of this year. The company originally planned to cut $3.5 billion in annual costs by the end of 2024, and later increased the figure to $4 billion.
In May this year, Pfizer announced an additional multi-year program to continue reducing expenses, with the first measures expected to take place in 2025. The first phase of the program will focus on “operational efficiencies” and is intended to save the company $1.5 billion annually by the end of 2027. As part of this plan, Pfizer forecasts to spend approximately $1.7 billion, which will be mostly spent on severance and implementation costs.
