חברת החשמל מתכוונת לתבוע את ספקית הגז המצרית EMG

Pharmos Corporation (Nasdaq:PARS) has not seen any income for the past 18 months and the U.S.-based drug company, with offices in Rehovot, is looking for ways to cut back on expenses.

The company will be downsizing its current work force by 20% in 2003 to 50 employees. "We are firing 12 workers as part of the review of our expenditures," chairman and CEO Haim Aviv said yesterday.

Pharmos's second move was to raise $4.3 million, which was intended to pay off the company's debt to bondholders. This totaled $3.5 million and was slated for repayment in June of this year. The bonds, which included a 6% interest payment, were issued two years ago to two American institutional investors. Pharmos cashed in the bonds in return for $3.8 million.

According to capital market assessments, Pharmos burned $15 million in 2002. Aviv said the company's cash-burn rate this year would slow, due in part to the downsizing of its work force.

Pharmos discovers, develops, and commercializes therapeutics to treat a range of indications, such as traumatic brain injury and other neurological and inflammation-based disorders.

The company's first neuroprotective product, dexanabinol, is currently in international clinical trials and Pharmos is now recruiting patients in the United States, following the enlistment of hundreds of patients in Europe, Israel and as far as Australia.

Aviv believes the company will receive approval for its product in 2005. Pharmos envisions a market potential of hundreds of millions of dollars for the drug.

Pharmos shares dropped 9% to 87 cents in trading on the Nasdaq yesterday. The company's stock attracted a volume of $580,000 - some eight times more than the average daily turnover in Pharmos shares.