Sweden-based Medivir AB is reducing the number of its employees to 17 from 75 to focus internal resources on clinical development projects.

The company said the layoffs are due to redundancies, mainly within research and administration, and will cut the company's cost base by about two-thirds, freeing up significant resources for the development projects.

In addition, Richard Bethell will leave the position of chief scientific officer. He had been chief scientific officer and executive vice president for research and development since Sept. 1, 2015.

The Sweden-based pharmaceutical company is planning to start late-stage studies for Remetinostat to treat cutaneous T cell lymphoma, a rare kind of blood cancer, and MIV-711 to treat osteoarthritis. Its clinical pipeline also includes treatments for tumors and liver cancer.