BC Business
Drug research | BCBusinessVancouver-based drug development firm QLT Inc. is handing out pink slips to 68 per cent of its workforce in a last-stitch effort to cut costs.
The Vancouver-based drug development firm is experiencing a human resources shakeup as it slashes two-thirds of its employees and loses its chief executive. The end of the weekend brings more bad news for a local employer: QLT, a drug development company based in Vancouver, is cutting 146 positions amid a massive shift in the firm’s human resources. Gutting its workforce will reportedly save QLT between $45 million to $50 million in operating expenses next year as it moves forward with just 68 employees.
The end of the weekend brings more bad news for a local employer: QLT, a drug development company based in Vancouver, is cutting 146 positions amid a massive shift in the firm’s human resources. Gutting its workforce will reportedly save QLT between $45 million to $50 million in operating expenses next year as it moves forward with just 68 employees. QLT’s chief executive Bob Butchofsky also resigned after he was kicked off the company’s board of directors last month. The drug development firm grew to prominence as one of the country’s most successful biotech companies in the early 2000s as Visudyne, its drug that treats age-related blindness, gained popularity in North America. But when competitor Novartis released a rival product, QLT lost its significant market share. The company has limped along as Visudyne sales fell and it struggled to manufacture another commercially successful treatment.