Five months ago, Exelixis Inc. reorganized, cutting 62 jobs, mostly in early discovery, in order to free up resources for downstream integration. Having started out as a genomics-based drug discovery company, the move was natural: Exelixis had already created a proprietary small-molecule screening platform and a set of assays. It was time to address the challenge of commercializing its pipeline of cancer compounds, which currently includes three in the clinic and four at or close to an IND filing.
But the workforce reduction was only one small step (it cut roughly one-sixth of its total R&D group) towards addressing the company's increasing burn rate—expected to hit roughly $90 million...