Biotech, cancer, Life Sciences
Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Considers Selling Cancer Drugs
Luke Timmerman 12/15/08
Adventrx Pharmaceuticals issued one of those press releases this morning that suggests the end is near. The San Diego-based cancer drug developer said today it is “exploring strategic options” that include a sale of one or more of its product candidates, or what it calls a “strategic business merger.” When your stock is trading at 9 cents a share, I’m thinking the words “fire sale” might be more fitting.
Adventrx (AMEX: ANX) hit the rocks in October, when it cut one-fourth of its staff and CEO Evan Levine quit. The company’s chief financial officer, Mark Bagnall, said in the statement that he hopes the announcement will entice a partner to acquire one or both of the company’s cancer drugs in the late stages of development. One of them, ANX-514, is a reformulation of Sanofi-Aventis’ chemotherapy agent docetaxel (Taxotere) which generated $3 billion in worldwide sales in 2007. Another product, ANX-530, is a reformulation of vinorelbine, another chemotherapy drug.
Toward the end of the release, the company says it needs to get offers in writing, and the proposed buyers will have to show how they have sources of funding. It’s truly an amazing sign of the times when people feel the need to state publicly that your money had better be real.
Luke Timmerman is the National Biotechnology Editor for Xconomy. You can e-mail him at ltimmerman@xconomy.com, call 206-624-2374, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ldtimmerman.
