Companies Beam Therapeutics Inc FollowOct 19 (Reuters) - Beam Therapeutics (BEAM.O) said on Thursday it will focus on developing its experimental sickle cell disease treatments and reduce about 20% of its current workforce, or 100 employees, as part of a restructuring plan. The gene-editing specialist expects to incur one-time expenses of about $6.6 million related to the workforce reduction, which it plans to complete in the fourth quarter. Its experimental sickle cell disease treatments include early-stage candidate BEAM-101, which activates fetal hemoglobin, the dominant form of hemoglobin present in the fetus during gestation. Beam will pause the development of its hepatitis B virus candidate, currently being evaluated in lab studies, and explore partnership opportunities for it. Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi MajumdarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Persons: Beam, David Liu, Feng Zhang, J Keith Joung, Bhanvi Satija, Christy Santhosh, Shilpi Majumdar Organizations: Beam Therapeutics, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Thomson Locations: Cambridge , Massachusetts, Bengaluru