Reeling from AstraZeneca's termination of pneumonia collab, Aridis lays off 20% of staff

Aridis Pharmaceuticals has laid off a fifth of its workforce in the wake of AstraZeneca’s “surprise” move to terminate its pneumonia collaboration over a payment dispute.

As part of their 2021 agreement, Aridis agreed to pay $11 million upfront to AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit for the rights to the monoclonal antibody suvratoxumab. The deal also gave AstraZeneca an equity stake in Aridis and allowed the Big Pharma first negotiations on future licensing as well as potentially $115 million to follow in milestone payments.