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Johnson & Johnson’s second attempt to resolve talc lawsuits in bankruptcy should be dismissed as an unprecedented fraud designed to deny plaintiffs just compensation, lawyers representing cancer victims argued in a Monday court filing, Reuters reported. The attorneys contend J&J defied a January appeals court rejection of its first attempt to settle the litigation, noting that a J&J subsidiary refiled for chapter 11 about two hours after a court dismissed its first bankruptcy. The lawyers blasted the move as the "largest intentional fraudulent transfer in United States history." Johnson & Johnson is offering to settle all claims for $8.9 billion, up from its original offer of $2 billion. Monday's legal broadside challenged the company’s latest gambit as an unlawful abuse of the chapter 11 system, echoing earlier objections to its first effort to resolve the lawsuits. In October 2021, J&J executed a controversial legal maneuver known as a Texas two-step. The tactic involved dividing its consumer business in two and then offloading tens of thousands of talc lawsuits onto a newly created subsidiary, which almost immediately filed for chapter 11. The goal: to halt the avalanche of lawsuits and force plaintiffs into a global settlement in bankruptcy court. The plaintiffs allege J&J's talc-based Baby Powder and similar cosmetic products caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. The company maintains its talc products are safe.

Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, will buy the assets of at-home COVID-flu test developer Lucira Health Inc. following an auction Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the San Francisco Business Times reported. After meeting with the unsecured creditors' committee, Emeryville-based Lucira declared Pfizer, the manufacturer of a critical COVID-19 vaccine and drug, as the successful bidder. The next highest bidder was Pearsanta Inc., a recently formed subsidiary of Richmond, Virginia-based Aditxt Inc., according to a bankruptcy court filing. Court filings did not disclose how much the companies bid for Lucira, which was the first company to win Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization in late 2020 for an at-home, do-it-yourself molecular diagnostic test for COVID. Lucira filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February as it awaited FDA approval of a combined COVID-flu test for which it had been trying to take to market for months. Two days after the bankruptcy filing, FDA officials granted emergency use authorization, or EUA, for the combined test. Pfizer's purchase of Lucira's assets is scheduled to be heard April 13 before Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary F. Walrath.

Bankrupt startup SiO2 Medical Products Inc. on Thursday received court approval for a $120 million loan, which includes $60 million of new capital, on its way to a planned handover of the business to Oaktree Capital Management LP, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Auburn, Ala.-based medical device company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, facing a liquidity crisis after its unsuccessful capital raise efforts in the past few weeks, SiO2’s lawyer Brian Schartz said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey approved the $120 million bankruptcy loan sponsored by top lender Oaktree that will provide the business with $60 million of new capital, with the remaining $60 million to be used to pay back a portion of the debt held by Oaktree before the bankruptcy. Founded in 2012, SiO2 rapidly expanded in the medical device sector by manufacturing vials, syringes and tubes, using its patented materials. The company said it was running out of cash partly because of an ill-fated government contract signed during the pandemic to develop a vial for a COVID-19 vaccine. The 2020 contract granted SiO2 $143 million in funding to build necessary manufacturing facilities, while requiring as much as $128 million in expenditures under a cost-sharing agreement.

Codiak BioSciences Inc. said yesterday that it has filed for chapter 11 protection in the latest blow to the struggling drug developer's ambitions of making a COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reported. The chapter 11 filing ends months of investor uncertainty after the company, which has been facing a cash crunch, raised going concern doubts and cut its workforce by 37% last year. The company said yesterday that it will cut an additional 34 jobs, bringing its total number of employees to 19, and expects to incur severance-related costs of about $1.1 million. Codiak previously said it would prioritize its COVID-19 vaccine development program that was funded by a global vaccine coalition, while halting development of two cancer drug candidates which were ready for mid-stage study. The company will also wind down a clinical trial of its drug for a type of bone marrow cancer, according to a filing yesterday. The $2.5-million funding by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations in July was aimed at an experimental vaccine that would target COVID-19 as well as other coronaviruses.