Telios Pharmaceuticals Inc. is terminating 20 employees as afallout from FDA's request for additional information on thecompany's Argidene gel.

Telios (NASDAQ:TLIO) of San Diego announced late Friday thatit is reducing its workforce to 142 employees to conserve cash.The company is also curtailing the operations of its whollyowned subsidiary, Telios Pharma GmbH, which was formed in1991 to conduct clinical trials in Europe. Based in Germany,Telios Pharma's staff will be cut from three to one and thesubsidiary will not conduct any clinical trials in the foreseeablefuture.

Last Monday, Telios announced that FDA needed additionalinformation before it could consider the company's premarketapproval (PMA) application for Argidene's use in treatingdiabetic foot ulcers (see BioWorld, Jan. 26). Nancy McRae,Telios' investor relations manager, said the request willprobably delay introduction of Argidene since it puts thecompany back to ground zero. Once FDA gets the additionalinformation, the review clock will resume ticking, McRae said.-- Brenda Sandburg

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