By Gustav Sandstrom
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Danish pharmaceutical company Genmab A/S (GEN.KO) said Thursday it will cut around 300 jobs, sell its U.S.-based manufacturing facility and reorganize its business in order to "match resources to ongoing and future needs".
As a result of the plans, Genmab cut its full-year guidance, taking into account restructuring costs as well as savings from the reorganization.
It said it now expects an operating loss of 1.16 billion Danish kroner ($232 million), compared to its previous full-year guidance for a DKK650 million loss.
The company's shares fell sharply on the news, and at 1459 GMT were trading down 14% at DKK110.75 in a flat Copenhagen market.
Mads Zink, head of sales trading at Danske Equities, said news of the downsizing and factory sale was unexpected and hit investor sentiment towards Genmab's stock. The reduced full-year guidance also hit the shares, he said.
Genmab said it doesn't intend to discontinue any of its development programs.
"The workload for Genmab's development employees, in particular, has decreased and is expected to remain low as partners take on increasing responsibility for upcoming studies," the company said. "Genmab will adopt a more flexible model based on contracts with vendors to address varying demand for clinical development work going forward," it added.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Arzerra, a leukemia drug that Genmab is developing with GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK), the world's second largest drugmaker by sales.
Company Web site: http://www.genmab.com
-By Gustav Sandstrom, Dow Jones Newswires; +46-8-5451-3099; gustav.sandstrom@dowjones.com