Icelandic biotech deCODE Genetics may become another casualty of tough economic times. The company linkurl:announced today;http://tinyurl.com/rcf3pb (August 11) that it has only $3.8 million dollars left in its coffers -- enough to fund operations "into the latter half of the third quarter," which in Iceland runs through September. In a conference call this morning, the company said it was restructuring its business, dropping its medicinal chemistry and structural biology operations, and instead focusing on providing commercial and consumer genetics services. "We are making good progress in recasting deCODE as a leading DNA-based diagnostics company," Kari Stefansson, the company's CEO, said on the call. Going forward, said Stefansson, the three main elements of its business will be the company's consumer genome-based diagnostics business decodeME, as well as scientific services (providing genotyping, sequencing, and data management) and out-licensing for genetic markers. A $10 million deal struck in April, for example, granted genomics...
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