La Jolla Pharmaceuticals recently announced its plans to liquidate assets. Its lupus drug Riquent failed to show efficacy in Phase III studies in February, and the company failed to find any additional financing.
TorreyPines Therapeutics will be shutting its doors and liquidating its assets, which include ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonist, tezampanel. The FDA had approved a Phase III study for tezampanel in acute migraine but required a QT/QTc study in parallel with the first Phase III pivotal trial. Unfortunately, TorreyPines was unable to secure a partner to help develop tezampanel before running out of money.
DiObex, which had a low-dose glucagon for diabetes entering Phase II, was also forced to shut down and sell its assets after investors decided that the valuation from new investors was too low.
Other life science companies that have struggled to find financing include: Nanogen, Isolagen, Oscient Pharmaceuticals, Luna Innovations, Biopure, and Epix Pharmaceuticals. Check out the WSJ’s “Turning Out the Lights” series of posts for other venture-backed company shutdowns.
BioPharma Deals 