ZymoGenetics to Abandon Cancer Research, Cut 160 Jobs

Seattle, Washington’s ZymoGenetics will cut 161 employees and discontinue research on cancer treatments.

The firm will continue to market its only approved product, the blood-clotting compound Recothrom Thrombin, and will narrow its research focus to immunology.

ZymoGenetics said the terminated employees will get severance benefits.

ZymoGenetics is a biotechnology and pharmaceutical firm involved in the development of therapeutic proteins. The company was founded in 1981 by Earl W. Davie and Benjamin D. Hall of the University of Washington, and 1993 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Michael Smith of the University of British Columbia.