Dendreon Corp., the maker of prostate-cancer drug Provenge, filed for bankruptcy protection, potentially wiping out shareholders in a company that pioneered the use of patients’ immune systems to fight tumors, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The agreement calls for a recapitalization of Dendreon, or a sale of the company or its assets, the Seattle-based drugmaker said yesterday. The company and its U.S. subsidiaries filed chapter 11 petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Provenge, approved in 2010 as the first so-called immunotherapy, was designed to treat patients with advanced-stage prostate cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the U.S. The drug never lived up to expectations because it’s cumbersome to administer and costs $93,000. Dendreon said that it plans to continue operations during the restructuring and will provide Provenge to patients. The company has about 700 employees in Seattle and Bridgewater, N.J., after cutting about 750 full-time and contractor positions in 2012 and 2013 and selling a New Jersey plant.
