Oscient files for bankruptcy and sells Factive
Oscient CEO Steven Rauscher said that: "Given current capital market constraints and our limited cash resources, we determined that the best way to position our organization for a potential partnership or acquisition was to take the difficult steps to realign our commercial organization and reduce cash required for operations."
Oscient has had a difficult time over the last year, beginning in July 2008 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked it to revise Factive’s warning label after three cases of tendon rupture were linked to the drug.
In February this year Oscient eliminated 205 jobs in a bid to cut costs in the face of massive debts and falling sales due to increased generic competition.
In May the situation worsened when Paddock Labs announced plans to launch a version of Oscient’s biggest seller, the cholesterol drug Antara which generates around 80 per cent of its annual revenue.
The following month Oscient halted all sales and marketing efforts for both Antara and Factive and laid-off a further 180 employees.
The company also withdrew a European marketing application for Factive in June after the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said that trial data did not support the product’s approval.
Oscient also said it expects to be delisted from the Nasdaq on July 21 after failing to pay the required subscription fees on July 10 and said that it does not plan to appeal the decision.
