Celladon Corp (NASDAQ:CLDN) is going through a tough phase. The company is cutting out on its workforce to survive after the gene treatment drug for heart disease failed in its Phase 2B trial. The Mydicar drug for curing cardiac diseases failed to help increase survival rate or lower the rate of hospitalization in heart patients, and this has impacted the company’s market value. This therapy was the company’s hope of achieving a breakthrough in the heart failure treatment domain, and now all hopes have washed away.
According to reports, the company is slashing its strength to almost half from the current staff of 34 biotechnologists in a bid to cut down on the company costs. Their development deals with Novasep and Lonza are also now not going to materialize as the collaboration with the two companies was for the development of the Mydicar drug, which is history now. The deals were going to provide a $15 million aid in manufacturing of the cardiac treatment.
Company Struggling to Stay Afloat
A regulatory statement of the company affirmed that they had $70.6 million in cash and equivalents at the end of the March quarter. This was enough to help the company in working on other projects and new research that can help boost the confidence of its investors. The market sentiment has fallen past the failed attempts of the gene therapy, and the company is going to preserve the cash flows to understand the failure.
Analyzing Possibilities on Future
Celladon’s Chief Executive Officer Krisztina Zsebo stated that the company was now mulling to carry out an extensive review of the study data on the Mydicar drug. This would help them in getting a better understanding of the negative results of the drug. Zsebo said that the company was also analyzing its cash resources and trying to figure out in the next clinical trials that they will be conducting for the treatment of other diseases.
In a bid to boost the investor confidence and get a better market standing, the company is trying to take caution in choosing their next pathway. Meanwhile, analysts have been downgrading the share value after the company failed to meet the estimated growth in share rates in the last quarter.
