Immune Response Corporation CEO Resigns; Company Cuts Jobs
Immune Response Corp., the developer of Remune, an experimental therapeutic vaccine used to treat HIV/AIDS, has announced that CEO Dennis Carlo has resigned and that the company will cut more than half of the jobs at its Carlsbad, Calif., headquarters, Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times reports. The company announced that Ronald Moss, former vice president for medical and scientific affairs, has been promoted to president and that the company is seeking a new CEO. Carlo will remain on the company's board. According to Bloomberg/Times, the company could add as many as five new positions at its King of Prussia, Pa., site in order to boost production of Remune (Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times, 9/10). Earlier this year, auditors questioned the company's "ability to stay in business" following financial losses and the resignation of its chief financial officer. The company this year reported a first-quarter loss of $5.2 million, compared to a loss of $5.1 million for the same quarter last year, and the company in August 2001 announced it would terminate a study of Remune after a Pfizer subsidiary withdrew its development partnership for the research. Pfizer said it decided to terminate the partnership because Immune Response had not produced "convincing evidence" that Remune helps patients. In November 2000, a study conducted by University of California-San Francisco researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that Remune was ineffective in preventing the onset of AIDS. The company in May announced that it had enough money to continue operating into June 2002 (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/23).
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