Genta cuts more than a third of its workforce

Biopharmaceutical company Genta Inc. said it cut more than a third of its workforce to focus on its oncology development operations and conserve cash.

In a statement, Genta said the reduction of its workforce by 34 people would result in severence expenses of about $700,000.


GNTA.O closed Wednesday's trading at 48 cents a share. Moreover, GNTA has failed to meet NASDAQ Global Market continued listing requirement(s).

The Company’s lead drug from its RNA/DNA Medicines program is Genasense® (oblimersen sodium). Genasense is currently in late-stage clinical trials for the treatment of melanoma, multiple myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer and prostate cancer.

In myeloma cells and other tumor cells, resistance to anticancer therapy is associated with the presence of a protein called Bcl-2. Genasense is a drug that turns off the production of the Bcl-2 protein, which may increase a tumor cell's sensitivity to therapy and ultimately, cause cell death.
I posted some information on anti-sense technology a couple of months ago, but briefly here is a refresher.

Antisense is a technology that stops gene expression by using oligoneucleotides (altered DNA or RNA) that closely resemble the gene that is targeted. The oligo binds the gene and inhibits it's expression, hopefully then tumor cells will be vulnerable to treatment.