When Zosano Pharma Corp. spun out of Alza Corp. 16 years ago — and up until the company plotted the last in a series of regulatory filings to win approval of its first drug-coated microneedle patch — its leaders hoped to transform drug delivery, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Instead, the Fremont, Calif.-based company is set to be sold to a onetime partner today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware for up to $1.25 million, a fraction of the money it raised earlier this year in a last-ditch effort to keep the company and its migraine pain-relief patch program afloat. Emergex USA Corp., a Doylestown, Pa.-based subsidiary of the U.K.’s Emergex Vaccines Holdings Ltd., would pay $1 million for substantially all of Zosano's assets if the sale is approved Thursday. Emergex also could pay as much as an additional $250,000 to cover the dismantling and removal of some of those assets. Emergex was chosen last week by Zosano and consultants after an auction. A $500,000 bid from LTS Lohmann Theraprie-Systeme AG of Germany — only for some Zosano assets — was set aside as a backup bid if the Emergex deal falls apart.
