Hawaii Biotech yesterday said it eliminated 14 jobs, or 20 percent of its workforce, as the company seeks investment capital needed for future drug trials.

'Aiea-based Hawaii Biotech is researching a variety of antidotes, including vaccines for the West Nile virus and dengue fever. The company has raised $16 million in capital during the past four years, but needs significantly more money to proceed with pre-clinical and clinical drug trials, said David Watumull, president and chief executive of Hawaii Biotech.

"We are refocusing our efforts on our priority programs," he said. "It's being driven by a slowdown, or delay in our expanded financing that we've been waiting on."

Watumull would not specify how much money the company was seeking.

State and technology industry officials have argued for years that the state's geographic isolation makes it difficult for local companies to attract critically needed venture capital financing.

This year, state lawmakers failed to adopt a proposed $120 million state-backed fund for investment in local companies, known as the State Private Investment Fund.

Without the program, technology industry leaders worry that local companies will be forced to move to the Mainland to find investors.

"We're cautiously optimistic on our financing opportunities, as always," Watumull said. "But it would be better for Hawaii Biotech if there were a source of venture capital for life science and drug development in Hawai'i.

"Hawai'i as a community needs to decide whether it wants to fund that here. There's a real gap."

After yesterday's layoffs, Ha-waii Biotech had 56 employees, Watumull said. The privately held biopharmaceutical company was founded in 1982 by nine University of Hawai'i professors.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.