ActivBiotics, Inc unveiled plans to liquidate all of its assets following a review of strategic options after its clinical trial of Rifalazil failed in peripheral arterial disease patients.
The bidding for the assets, which may be purchased separately or in combination, will end on February 1, 2008.
ActivBiotics has selected Joseph Finn, Jr to handle the auction of its assets which is to be sold out through an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, process.
"The Board of Directors has decided to pursue the sale of the company's clinical and preclinical drug assets", said Steven C. Gilman, Ph.D., chairman, ActivBiotics. "We believe that our anti-inflammatory phase II drug candidate and our antibacterial library of compounds are of significant value to companies in those therapeutic areas."
Bidding packages have been assembled and are ready to be distributed subject to a potential purchaser entering into a standard form confidentiality agreement, said the company in a recent press release.
The assets include libraries of more than 250 small molecules, 800 anti bacterial compounds M40403 and M40419 drug compounds and Rifalazil, a clinical stage anti bacterial agent.
The package is intended to provide prospective purchasers with information concerning the company's Sale of Assets and conveyancing documents.
M40403, studied in approximately 700 patients/subjects, has an active IND, and a protocol on file with the FDA under which a phase II clinical trial for the treatment of post-operative ileus can be conducted, and a protocol to initiate a phase II clinical trial for the treatment of oral mucositis. The company has submitted and expects to shortly receive Orphan Drug Designation status in Europe and has an Orphan Drug application pending with the US FDA for the treatment of oral mucositis in subjects with advanced head and neck cancer. In addition to these indications, the SOD mimetics have potential therapeutic uses in a variety of inflammatory disorders including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and radiation protection, stroke, and ischemia reperfusion injury.
Rifalazil, tested in approximately 600 patients, is a potent antibacterial agent with activity mainly against pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria. Rifalazil was found efficacious in a phase II Chlamydia STD clinical trial, and, separately, a protocol has been submitted to the FDA to begin a phase II clinical trial in carotid artery atherosclerosis. Rifalazil has been granted Fast Track designation for the treatment of CDAD. The company has open INDs to continue Rifalazil development for infectious diseases, and atherosclerosis-related disease.