NPS moving out of Utah

NPS Pharmaceuticals announced Wednesday that it is pulling up stakes and consolidating its operations in New Jersey.

The formerly Salt Lake-based drug company said the move is part of a broader strategy to cut costs, increase efficiency and create more flexibility to develop its products.

For Salt Lake City, it will mean the loss of most of NPS's nearly 100 jobs and the last vestiges of its formerly formidable presence in Utah.

"Our financial position has led us to evaluate a number of strategic options for advancing our pipeline," Tony Coles, the company's president and chief executive officer, said during a teleconference Wednesday. "These were difficult decisions, as they include the departure of a number of our valued colleagues, and that's never an easy choice to make. But it is the right decision for the business."

By year's end, Coles said, NPS will reduce its staff from 196 to 35 and close its facilities in Salt Lake City and Toronto, Canada. About 100 people work in Salt Lake, primarily in discovery and administrative jobs, said Brandi Simpson, NPS senior director of investor relations. The jobs that are relocating are primarily administrative positions, she said, as the company is minimizing its discovery efforts going forward.

"A few employees have been asked to relocate to New Jersey, and the remaining employees have been let go," Simpson said.

"Many of them, however, have been asked to remain with the company for a certain period of time. For some, it's maybe another month. For others it's until the end of the year, to wrap up the work they've been doing."

As part of its restructuring plan, Coles said NPS will "focus our own clinical work on high-value specialty indications, manage the execution of this activity through contract research organizations, and find partners for indications we can't afford ourselves."

It also will outsource all new drug development activities and look for funding partners to finance its Phase Three drug development programs, he said.

Last year, NPS failed to get U.S. approval of its osteoporosis drug, Preos. But Coles said the company is making progress and remains optimistic.

NPS also will scale down its board of directors from 10 to 7, Coles said, as NPS founder Hunter Jackson and longtime directors Santo Costa and Joseph Klein announced they will not seek re-election at the company's annual meeting in May.