Updating the end of the road for Biopure
The struggling biotech which had filed for bankruptcy has signed off on the court’s transaction for $4 M. In addition to buying substantially all of Biopure’s assets, OPK also agreed to acquire Biopure’s 50% stake in a partnership that owns its headquarters and some laboratory space. That transaction will cost OPK $850,000.
The firm was once one of the state’s most promising biotechs. Hemopure, the blood substitute made from cow hemoglobin, long seemed on the verge of emerging as a life-saving breakthrough. But Biopure could never clear regulatory hurdles that would have turned the substitute into a mainstream medical product. Although the Navy was interested in using the experimental product to treat military personnel wounded in battle, the FDA consistently rejected efforts by Biopure and the Navy to test it in clinical trials, citing safety worries and other concerns (BsGlobe).
Biopure stockholders won’t receive much or any money from proceeds of the sale to OPK.
