GSK to part ways with ‘most’ Bellus Health employees a year after $2B buy

Many of the em­ploy­ees be­hind GSK’s late-stage in­ves­ti­ga­tion­al drug for chron­ic cough will be let go at the end of March.

“Af­ter hav­ing com­plet­ed the tran­si­tion ac­tiv­i­ties linked to the GSK ac­qui­si­tion, most Bel­lus Health em­ploy­ees will be wrap­ping up their in­volve­ment with the com­pa­ny on March 31,” Rober­to Belli­ni, the long­time CEO of Bel­lus, wrote Thurs­day on LinkedIn.

A year ago, GSK bought the Cana­di­an biotech for $2 bil­lion for Bel­lus’ Phase 3 chron­ic cough can­di­date, which was ex­pect­ed to com­pete with Mer­ck’s P2X3 an­tag­o­nist. That drug was re­ject­ed by the FDA for a sec­ond time in De­cem­ber.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.