"Biopure files Chapter 11, plans sale" by D.C. Denison, Globe Staff | July 18, 2009
Biopure Corp., the ambitious Cambridge biotech firm that was working on developing a human blood substitute, has run out of time and money. The company said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will sell most of its remaining assets to OPK Biotech LLC, a Delaware company.
Yup, our economic saviors. I'd rather they take their poisons someplace else.
If the sale is approved in court, it will mark the end of a firm that once was one of the state’s most promising biotechs. Hemopure, made from cow hemoglobin, long seemed on the verge of emerging as a potential life-saving breakthrough. But Biopure could never clear regulatory hurdles that would have turned Hemopure into a mainstream medical product.
At one time, the company, which was founded in 1984, had 250 employees, but only four remained at the time of the bankruptcy filing. The once-hot stock, which reached a record $49.37 price in March 2000, closed yesterday at under 7 cents. The bankruptcy also triggered a delisting notice from the Nasdaq stock market. In the bankruptcy petition, Biopure said it had $5.08 million in assets and $2.73 million in liabilities.
A major part of the Biopure story was driven by the exciting promise of its technology. By isolating cow blood hemoglobin - a chemical that binds with oxygen - the company said it was on the way to creating a blood substitute that could fill a crucial need in the medical community. Hemopure showed many benefits compared with real blood: a three-year shelf life, the ability to be used by patients of any blood type, and freedom from diseases and pathogens that could be transmitted by human blood.
The path to Food and Drug Administration approval, however, was rocky. Although the Navy was interested in using the experimental product to treat military personnel wounded in battle, where traditional blood transfusions aren’t readily available, the FDA consistently rejected Biopure and the Navy’s efforts to test the product in clinical trials, citing safety worries and other concerns.
Related: Navy Looking For a Few Good Guniea Pigs
And if the FDA won't approve it, you know it can't be any good!
“Hemopure would have been a revolutionary technology,’’ said Domenick Bertelli, a partner at Putnam Associates, a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology strategy firm based in Burlington. “But there was a high level of risk in doing the trials, which made doctors uncomfortable. That increased the challenge of getting it to market.’’
The company also ran afoul of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2005, the SEC sued Biopure and several former executives, saying they misled investors about Hemopure’s prospects for approval. The parties settled. In addition, Howard Richman, a Biopure executive who left the company in 2003, pleaded guilty last month to pretending to be gravely ill to avoid a lawsuit from securities regulators. If the OPK Biotech LLC deal closes, it probably won’t help the company’s remaining stockholders. Biopure said it doubts there will be anything left after it settles claims with creditors.
Related: Biotech Thiefs and Liars
Here's a hint, readers, they ALL ARE!!!--more--"
