Opportunity Cost: How Alkermes Plans to Survive the Long Winter

Executive Summary

It's been a long and largely unpleasant summer for Alkermes--a major product delay and, thanks to the subsequent stock drop, the cancellation of its acquisition of Reliant and the chance to turn itself into a commercial organization. Now it's cut back on spending--laying off 23% of its workers and, in the process, creating a pipeline gap for the company as it pushes forward with late-stage Vivitrex and slows down on preclinical and early clinical work and giving up the flexibility "to be expansive," says the company's CEO.