Imprimis Axes 8% of Staff, Shuts Down Texas Facility
September 27, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN DIEGO – In an effort to trim $3 million in annual costs, compound pharmaceutical manufacturer Imprimis Pharmaceuticals is slashing 8 percent of its workforce and plans to shutter its facility in Texas.
Imprimis said the cuts will allow the company to leverage its drug production infrastructure, eliminate redundant expenses and “enable near term profitability without hindering growth plans.” Imprimis said its drug production will be supported by its newer New Jersey facility, which was bolstered by recent investments.
Mark Baum, Imprimis’ chief executive officer, said in a statement that the job cuts and the closing of the Texas facility will ultimately benefit company shareholders.
"We continue to experience strong growth in several important markets, including those for new products we have recently brought to market; however, the time has come to discipline our expenses and commit ourselves to moving towards profitability,” Baum said in a statement. “As we experience continued top line growth, improving margins and now a reduction in expenses, this plan efficiently utilizes our considerable sterile and non-sterile production and dispensing capacity on both coasts and ensures our commitment to advancing our vision of delivering innovative medicines at accessible prices, while generating a strong return to our shareholders."
Shuttering the Texas facility will cost the company about $600,000, most of which will be incurred during the third quarter of this year. The company said it is looking at “alternative uses” of the Texas site, but did not specify what those uses could be in its statement.
Imprimis said it plans to register the New Jersey site with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a 503B outsourcing facility later this year. In its statement, Imprimis said recent investments made to its New Jersey facility, along with production capacity in Irvine, Calif. and Folcroft, Penn. will “support long-term plans of achieving nine figure annual sales revenues.”
Imprimis is perhaps best known for offering a compound of pyrimethamine and leucovorin as a low-cost alternative to Daraprim following Martin Shkreli’s 2015 decision to increase the price of the drug by 5,000 percent. At the time, Imprimis said its combination treatment will have a price tag of $99 for 100 tablets, slightly less than $1 per pill.
Imprimis has a history of offering inexpensive options to high-priced drugs. In addition to Daraprim, Imprimis has developed tiopronin delayed release compounded formulations as a lower-cost alternative to the orphan drug Thiola, used for the treatment of cystinuria. Thiola has an estimated cost of about $150,000 per year. Imprimis said its formulation can save patients about 80 percent.
The company is also working on an alternative to Mylan ’s EpiPen Auto-Injector that costs about $100, compared to the $600 price tag Mylan patients currently play.