Impel Pharmaceuticals announced that it will cut 16% of its workforce and halt development of INP105 intranasal olanzapine for the treatment of agitation in autism spectrum disorder. The company also said that its Chief Medical Officer, Stephen Shrewsbury, will be leaving Impel at the end of March.
According to the company, the move will allow the company to “reprioritize spend to capitalize on the continued positive momentum in payor and prescriber uptake of Trudhesa.” The FDA approved Trudhesa dihydroergotamine nasal spray for the treatment of migraine in 2021. Impel said that quarterly prescriptions of Trudhesa were up 58% from the second quarter to the fourth quarter of 2022, and totaled 58,424 for that year, with refill rates averaging 63% and reimbursement at more than 60%.
Impel Chairman of the Board and CEO Adrian Adams said, “Today’s announcement is part of a measured effort aimed at best positioning Impel to achieve its business objectives by streamlining clinical development expenses in order to focus resources on maximizing the growing commercial potential of Trudhesa.”
Adams added, “I would like to thank Dr. Shrewsbury for his contributions to Impel and, more broadly, for helping increase our understanding of the upper nasal space and positively changing expectations about the therapeutic potential of nasally administered medicines. Dr. Shrewsbury, along with the team under his leadership, played a pivotal role in developing the company’s proprietary Precision Olfactory Delivery (POD) technology and conducting the clinical development that led to the successful first-cycle approval of Trudhesa by the FDA.”
Read the Impel Pharmaceuticals press release.
