Arena Pharmaceuticals announces workforce reduction and provides lorcaserin regulatory update.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc (Arena) announced a reduction of its US workforce of approximately 25%, or 66 employees. As a result of the workforce reduction, which Arena plans to complete around 28 Mar 2011, the company expects to incur restructuring charges, primarily in 1Q 2011, of approximately $3.8 M in connection with one-time employee termination costs. Arena expects the reduction to decrease annualized cash expenditures by approximately $13.5 M. Arena will focus its resources on working to obtain regulatory approval of lorcaserin, seeking collaborators for the commercialisation of lorcaserin outside of the US and advancing select earlier-stage research and development programmes …