A Buffalo, N.Y.-based biopharmaceutical company filed for bankruptcy and is attempting to sell its assets before a July 1 shutdown, according to court documents.
The drugmaker, Athenex, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy May 14 in Texas. Athenex is looking to sell its pharma solutions, research and development, and pharmaceutical division businesses.
Athenex, founded in 2003, develops and sells drugs intended to treat cancer and other conditions. The bankruptcy is because of a "significant regulatory setback … challenging biotech markets and the difficult economic environment," according to a May 14 news release.
"Over the past two years, we made considerable progress in refocusing our business around our promising NKT cell therapy platform, monetizing non-core assets to improve our balance sheet and extending our cash runway, paying down $108 million of debt and undertaking a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to create value for our stakeholders," Athenex CEO Johnson Lau, MD, said in the release.
"While we explored every viable avenue to avoid this outcome, an orderly sales process represents the best path forward at this time," he said.
Athenex said it will continue manufacturing its actinic keratosis drug tirbanibulin for the next 90 days. Here are about three dozen other products from the company that could soon leave the U.S. drug market.