GPC Biotech has announced plans to restructure, a process that will include layoffs of approximately 44% of the company’s current active workforce. Both the German and U.S. workforce will be cut. The company is “retaining key personnel needed to achieve the Company’s medium- and longer-term goals,” according to a GPC statement.

Bernd R. Seizinger, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer, said, “Our goal of having approximately two years of operating cash on hand at the end of 2007 has sadly necessitated very significant staff reductions on both sides of the Atlantic. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to our affected employees for their contributions to GPC Biotech.”

The company plans to lay off 103 employees: 60 employees in Munich and 43 in Princeton. The remaining work force will comprise 56 staffers in Munich and 58 in Princeton, following the shutdown of the company’s Waltham, MA facility in a few weeks.

GPC plans to focus its internal efforts on a limited number of development-stage oncology projects, while increasing licensing efforts and actively exploring M&A opportunities. To that end, the company has retained a core drug development team that is headquartered in the U.S., with a small group of development people retained in Germany to support ongoing and future work in Europe. The company has also retained a core drug discovery group in Munich that will support drug development in addition to continuing late-stage drug discovery efforts focused on kinase inhibitors. General and administrative staff also has been reduced. A small group of commercialization team members has been retained in the U.S. to support drug development and business development activities.