Middlebrook Pharma pares sales force

Middlebrook Pharma announced Tuesday it had cut its workforce by 100--paring its corporate staff by 20 percent and its sales force by 25 percent. After about $5 million in severance, the staff reduction is expected to lower the company's operating costs by six percent, saving $15 million per year.

The drugmaker, which moved from Germantown, MD to Westlake, TX last year, now has 253 employees, 225 of which are in sales. The layoffs were spurred by lagging sales of the company's only approved drug, strep throat treatment Moxatag, which was launched back in March.

"Our field sales force territory realignment is based on cumulative Moxatag prescription data and will allow us to concentrate our resources in markets where we have best demonstrated prescription volume access," John Thievon, MiddleBrook president and CEO, said in a statement. "We continue to seek opportunities to co-promote, in-license or acquire another product to further utilize our nationwide field sales force more effectively."

- here's the Middlebrook release
- the story from Forbes

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