275 million most scenic biotechnology company in the United States declares bankruptcy

Dendreon, once one of the most popular biotech listed companies in the United States, declared bankruptcy After layoffs (1180 of 2000 employees) and various emergency cost cutting measures, the former upstart went to the end Why does it come to this? After the bankruptcy, he started selling for $275 million, at least for now, there are no buyers who dare to take over, even if they have a vaccine they think is "revolutionary" The reason for dendreon's bankruptcy is that as much as 620 million US dollars of debt in 2016 has been unable to be paid, so the company will pay off this part of debt through bankruptcy auction Along with the uncertain fate, Provenge, the company's own research and development, the world's first therapeutic vaccine for tumor immune escape After the bankruptcy, both dendreon and Provenge were at the mercy of the receiver; however, in the eyes of dendreon, Provenge is a good news for prostate cancer patients, and the company still hopes that someone can continue to sell the product However, according to the results of secret auctions planned by JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch in 2013, "there is no takeover man" Analysts added: "it is estimated that Provenge's annual sales will be only $378 million by 2020." The market had estimated a peak of $4.3 billion, an embarrassment that dendreon could not have imagined four years ago The insider trading and "framing theory" behind it was founded in 1992 by Edgar Engleman, an immunologist at Stanford University School of medicine Later, he and Samuel Strober founded activated cell therapy in California Since then, the company has changed its name to: dendreon, which comes from the Greek word "dendritic" (like a branch), and its medical equivalent is dendritic cells The company's research project is based on the transformation of dendritic cells to treat cancer Provenge: unlike measles vaccine or human papillomavirus vaccine, Provenge is not a preventive vaccine, but a therapeutic vaccine that can kill tumor cells with human own immune cells, namely dendritic cells The vaccine needs to be customized for each patient, and after extracting the patient's dendritic cells, they are exposed to a cancer-related protein called prostate acid phosphatase Then these dendritic cells are injected back into the diseased human body, and the exposed dendritic cells will cause the immune attack on the tumor cells From an academic point of view, the vaccine may provide a new way to treat advanced prostate cancer And the capital market is also paying close attention to the trend of the product in FDA The reason is not hard to understand: in 2008 alone, more than 28000 people died of prostate cancer in the United States In 2007, the vaccine has reached the final stage of pre market approval in FDA The FDA advisory committee reached the conclusion by 14 votes in favor of 2 votes against: the vaccine is safe and effective for advanced prostate cancer News spread, and dendreon's share price rose to $18.05 on April 2 from $3.65 on March 12 But the FDA hesitated: they received a letter from Howard Scher, from the famous cancer research center in the United States, the memorial Sloan Caitlin Cancer Center (msckc) Compared with the academic background of other members of the Committee in cytology, histology and gene therapy, Scher seems to be more professional He points out that: 1 There is not enough supporting data in the declared materials; 2 The statistical processing is not appropriate; 3 The safety data is not perfect; 4 The expert committee uses different standards than other cancer drug approval What's more, although Provenge vaccine can prolong the life span of patients with advanced prostate cancer, the product fails to achieve the final design goal of slowing tumor growth In the end, the FDA made a controversial decision to require dendreon to complete a larger clinical trial for 500 patients, this time setting the overall survival rate as the final goal of the trial As a result, the stock price of the company entered the first big loop of the stock roller coaster In just one month, the share price fell from $18.05 to $6.11 Not only did investors lose a lot, but some patients, family members and tumor activists protested and even sued the FDA in court They accused the FDA of failing to act, delaying the launch of new drugs, and depriving patients of the desire to survive They also stressed that the FDA did not strictly review the conflicts of interest of review experts The named reviewer is Howard Scher who raises objections Howard Scher has a potential interest in novacea, a company that is also developing prostate cancer drugs He has plenty of reasons for his competitors' drugs not to be approved or delayed Further investigation shows that Scher only disclosed three of the conflicts of interest events in the registration form disclosed to FDA, and missed 10 In addition, novacea became a technical cooperation agreement with Schering ploughda in the same period of Provenge approval, which doubled the stock value of novacea On July 9, 2007, the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an informal investigation into dendreon: the scope of the SEC's investigation includes Provenge's clinical trials, the company's application for listing the drug and the FDA's evaluation of the application thereafter Dendreon made a fool of himself: some shareholders accused the company of improper disclosure of information and Illegal Insider Trading in early 2007 The inevitable magic spell turns around In October 2008, dendreon said that his prostate cancer vaccine Provenge showed a 20% reduction in the risk of death compared to patients in the placebo group in a new clinical trial In April 2009, the full trial results revealed that the vaccine could extend the survival time of patients with advanced prostate cancer for four months So the stock market went crazy On March 2, 2009, dendreon was only $2.61 a share By May 2010, FDA officially approved the product to go on the market, and the share price climbed to 54.06 US dollars per share Some analysts predict that the product will become a heavyweight product without any suspense, with the highest annual sales of $4.3 billion Provenge did not fail to live up to expectations, with sales of more than US $100 million in four months of listing In September 2010, dendreon signed a cooperation agreement with GSK, which specializes in vaccine sales, to jointly manufacture and sell vaccines The deadline for cooperation is December 31, 2015 The sales volume in 2010 was quite satisfactory: in the first half of the year, the total sales volume of the products was 480 million US dollars Just when everyone thought Provenge would make a great achievement, in 2011, dendreon made an incredible decision: it overturned the previous sales agreement with GSK and paid $4 million in liquidated damages to GSK Investors are not optimistic about such a move, and the stock price drops randomly Richard B brewer, the head of sales and director of the company, joined the company in February 2004 The former head of Genentech's sales once operated the listing of melowa Unfortunately, he did not save Provenge's decline: in 2011, the company's annual sales halved, only $214 million; in 2012 and 2013, the sales were $325 and $283 million, respectively Since then, Astaire and medivation have produced a more convenient competing product, xtandi Another competitor, Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer treatment product, zytiga, is on the market Although Provenge was approved by the European Union in September 2013 and can be sold in 28 member countries, Mitchell Gold, the chairman of the board, retired, Richard B brewer, the sales director, died and John, the new CEO, died Johnson's resignation, even if it is to lay down a large number of layoffs and cost cutting flags, still leaves the company helpless, and its share price has now dropped to $0.18 Finally, the question comes Do you dare to accept such a company? Original title: Bankruptcy! $275 million! How did the most beautiful dendreon ever come to this?