(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris commercial court has ordered the judicial liquidation of the biopharmaceutical company. Acticor Biotech shares will soon be delisted.

The year 2025 begins on a very bitter note for Acticor Biotech shareholders. The Paris commercial court on Thursday, January 2, declared the judicial liquidation of the biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular emergencies. The company had been in receivership since August 6, 2024, and given the company’s latest communications there was very little hope of a less dramatic end.

“We had all placed enormous hope in the development of glenzocimab for stroke patients. The disappointment is equal to the conviction we were building in developing a ‘first in class’ drug, capable of fundamentally changing the management of stroke”, declares Doctor Gilles Avenard in a letter to shareholders dated January 2.

A failure with serious consequences

This failure in clinical trials has in fact precipitated the fall of Acticor Biotech. At the end of July 2024, the company announced the failure of its phase 2/3 trial in the treatment of mechanical thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of acquired disability in adults and the second leading cause of death worldwide.

“In view of the elements provided to the members of the Independent Monitoring Committee (CSI), and according to the futility criteria defined by the protocol, the CSI recommends stopping the GREEN study”, evaluating its molecule glenzocimab, as a complementary treatment to mechanical thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke, Acticor Biotech declared in its press release dated July 26, 2024.

“The results of ACTISAVE, largely due to the heterogeneity of patients, an imbalance of groups and an improvement in patient care, added to the discontinuation of GREEN, prohibited any refinancing of the company in the difficult financial environment that we experienced in 2024″, recalls Doctor Gilles Avenard, who says “share[r] [s]”deep bitterness” in his missive addressed to the shareholders of Acticor Biotech.

To make matters worse, the company’s financial situation was very precarious before this failure. At the end of December 2023, the company still did not achieve any turnover, and reported that it was able to finance its operations until September 2024, Acticor Biotech indicated in its annual accounts published on July 9, 2024. .

No resumption of trading in sight

Back against the wall, Acticor Biotech was forced to put itself under the protection of commercial justice. At the beginning of August, the Paris Commercial Court declared the opening of a judicial recovery procedure for its benefit. This allowed the company to extend its cash flow horizon to January 2025.

Acticor Biotech was also looking for a buyer as part of this receivership procedure. However, the biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular emergencies was not the subject of any takeover offer at the end of this call for tenders procedure, before the initial deadline. from October 15, 2024, and even after an extension to November 5.

The judicial liquidation of Acticor Biotech will have consequences for shareholders. The trading of securities, which was suspended on December 9 at a price of 0.25 euros, will not resume. The company will soon request a delisting of its shares from Euronext.

Remember that Acticor Biotech took its first steps on the Paris Stock Exchange in November 2021 at an introductory price of 7.12 euros, in order to finance the latest clinical trials of a stroke treatment.