KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, the struggling drug company Martin Shkreli took over in November, may survive bankruptcy and its brush with Shkreli, who was ousted as chief executive after his arrest on securities fraud charges, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein rejected a request to have a trustee appointed to oversee KaloBios’s affairs, after warnings that displacing the leadership team that came on board after Shkreli left would upset the prospective deal. Revived hope of a deal for a potentially lucrative drug, benznidazole, could pull KaloBios out of chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company’s lawyers told Judge Silverstein at a hearing yesterday. KaloBios is lining up financing to move ahead on a restructuring built around benznidazole, a treatment for Chagas' disease. The affliction is on an FDA list of ailments that could earn a ticket for fast-track regulatory treatment known as a priority review voucher. Priority review vouchers have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, as Shkreli told investors in December, when he was trumpeting the commercial outlook for benznidazole.
