Bind Therapeutics and its treatment for non-small cell lung cancer may soon be owned by one-time partner Pfizer.
Bind, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, asked the bankruptcy court on July 1 to approve a stalking-horse bid from Pfizer for $20 million, a fraction of the $70.5 million it raised in an initial public offering in 2013. The Cambridge, MA-based company had raised about $94.2 million in other funding since its founding in 2007, including preferred equity and a $15 million loan from Hercules Technology, which prompted the bankruptcy filing.
Bind was co-founded by MIT’s Robert Langer and Harvard Medical School’s Omid Farokhzad. The company develops nanoparticle drugs meant to more effectively and precisely deliver toxic agents like the chemotherapy docetaxel. Bind, which also had partnerships with Astrazeneca and Amgen, created a technology it calls “Accurins.” These are nanoparticles that help distribute a drug more efficiently throughout the body, and thus target diseased tissue more effectively, as Xconomy previously reported.
Bind laid off 38 percent of its workforce in April in an attempt to cut spending, but it proved not to be enough. The company’s lender Hercules accelerated a payment on its $15 million loan, which Bind said prompted the bankruptcy filing the next month.
Bind’s lead drug, BIND-014, is currently being tested as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer but hasn’t shown efficacy in cancers of the cervix, head, or neck.
Shares of Bind’s stock closed at 73 cents yesterday, up 33 cents (82.5 percent). A stalking-horse bid is the first acquisition offer for the assets of another business seeking bankruptcy protection and can lead to an auction process, according to law firm Jones Day. If it receives other qualified bids before July 22, Bind may hold an auction on July 25, the company said in a statement.
