Tapestry Pharmaceuticals to Sell Genomics Assets; Job Cuts to Total 25 Percent

NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (GenomeWeb News) - Tapestry Pharmaceuticals, formerlly known as NaPro BioTherapeutics, will close most of its genomics division by the end of next year, laying off around 20 people as it closes the division's facility and sells off or licenses out most of its assets, the firm said yesterday in a statement.

Tapestry took the step in order to save costs to develop its cancer drugs. "Although we believe our gene editing technology has considerable long-term value, this current restructuring now focuses the majority of our assets on the development of our nearer term oncology clinical drug candidate portfolio," said Leonard Shaykin, Tapestry CEO.

The lay-offs will affect about one-fourth of Tapestry's employees, and, along with the rest of the company's restructuring plans, including the closing of its Newark, Del.facility, are expected to save the firm about $4 million annually, according to a statement. The company's genomics program in Huntington's disease will be the genomics division's only project to remain operational, the company added.

Rodman and Renshaw will serve as Tapestry's financial advisor during the sale and licensing of its assets, said Tapestry.

The assets for sale include contracts, patents, and other intellectual property of the genomics division, as well as physical assets, such as research equipment, the company said.

Tapestry's genomics division oversaw the company's gene-editing technology, which uses oligonucleotides to locate, label, isolate, and modify a single base pair in an organism's gene. Before the restructuring, the Boulder, Colo.-based company developed and licensed genomics technologies for agriculture, pharmacogenomics, diagnostics, and therapeutics.

NaPro changed its name to Tapestry in May.