Needham, Mass.-based Verastem, which is focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by the targeted killing of cancer stem cells, has announced a reduction of its workforce by about 50% to 20 full-time employees.

All affected employees will receive severance pay and outplacement assistance. As a result of the reduction in force and associated costs, Verastem estimates annual savings of about $4.9 million in cash operating expenses on a going-forward basis, with estimated one-time severance and related costs of about $825,000 over the fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016.