Sarepta Therapeutics lays off 493 workers amid FDA probe, stock drop, and concerns over its gene therapy treatment, Elevidys.

Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics declined 17% in early trading on Friday after another patient who had received an experimental gene therapy died, deepening investor concerns over the use of the company's treatments.

The restructuring enacted by Sarepta Therapeutics is expected to save up to $400 million in annual costs. Read why I'm downgrading SRPT stock from Hold to Sell.

On an investor call Friday, analysts grilled the company over its apparent lack of transparency on the matter.

The regulator had asked Sarepta Therapeutics to halt all shipments of its therapy, Ele­vidys, after three patients died from liver failure after taking it or a similar treatment.

Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT), the leader in precision genetic medicine for rare diseases, today issued the following statement:

As mothers of children with this disease, we have wept helplessly in recent months as friends — fellow members of a club we never asked to join — said goodbye to their sons, the babies they once held in their arms, whose dreams they held in their hearts until Duchenne robbed them of working muscles or a healthy future.