New Chapter 11 Filing - Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.

Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. 

3/12/18

Orexigen Therapeutics is a publicly-traded ($OREX) biopharmaceutical company with one FDA-approved product - "Contrave" - an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and exercise for chronic weight management in certain eligible adults. (Before we continue, please take a minute to appreciate the exquisite creativity these folks deployed with the name, "Contrave." Control + crave = Contrave. We hope they didn't shell out too much cash money to the brand consultants for that one). 

Anyway, the drug could theoretically service the 36.5% of adults the Center for Disease Control & Prevention has identified as obese, a potential market of 91-93 million people in the United States alone. And that number is predicted to rise to 120 million people in the next several years. Yikes: that's 33% of the U.S. population. Apropos, the drug is the number one prescribed weight-loss brand in the US with over 1.8 million prescriptions written to date, subsuming 700,000 patients. The drug is also approved in Europe, South Korea, Canada, Lebanon, and the UAE. 

All of that surface-level success notwithstanding, the company has lost approximately $730 million since its inception. This is primarily because it has been spending the last 16 years burning cash on R&D, clinical studies for FDA approval, recruitment, manufacturing, marketing, etc., both in and outside the U.S. And people wonder why drugs are so expensive. The company believes it could be profitable by 2019 under its existing operating model and revenue forecasts; it enjoys a patent until 2030. 

Obviously the patent is critical because the company, through its banker, attempted a sale prior to the bankruptcy filing but proved unsuccessful. The goal of the bankruptcy filing, therefore, is to effectuate a sale with the benefit of "free and clear" status. While no stalking horse bidder is lined up, The Baupost Group LLC, is leading a group of secured noteholders (including Ecori Capital, Highbridge Capital and UBS O'Connor) to provide a $35 million DIP credit facility and buy the company some time. Will they end up owning it? 

  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware 
  • Capital Structure: $165mm 0% '20 convertible notes (The Baupost Group LLC), $115mm 2.75% '20 convertible notes ($25 million outstanding, Wilmington Trust NA), $49.6mm 2.75% '20 convertible exchange senior notes ($38.9 million outstanding, US Bank NA) 
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Hogan Lovells LLP (Christopher Donolo, Eric Einhorn, Christopher Bryant, Jon Beck, Sean Feener) & (local) Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP (Robert Dehney, Andrew Remming, Jose Bibiloni)
    • Financial Advisor: E&Y
    • Investment Banker: Perella Weinberg Partners 
    • Claims Agent: KCC (*click on company name above for free docket access)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Prepetition Collateral Agent & Prepetition Trustee: U.S. Bank NA
      • Legal: Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (James Carr, Benjamin Feder)
    • DIP Lenders
      • Legal: Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP (Eric Winston)
    • DIP Administrative Agent: Wilmington Trust Company
      • Legal: Arnold & Porter (Tyler Nurnberg)
    • DIP Lender: Highbridge Capital Management LLC
      • Legal: Brown Rudnick LLP (Robert Stark, Stephen Levine, Uchechi Egeonuigwe) & (local) Whiteford Taylor & Preston LLC (Christopher Samis, L. Katherine Good, Aaron Stulman)
    • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
      • Legal: Elliott Greenleaf PC (Rafael Zahralddin-Aravena, Eric Sutty) & (local) Irell & Manella LLP (Jeffrey Reisner, Michael Strub Jr., Kerri Lyman)

Updated March 30, 2018

New Filing - Violin Memory Inc.

Violin Memory Inc.

  • 12/14/16 Recap: Marc Andreeson of A16Z once famously said that software would eat the world. Case and point: Violin Memory Inc. The publicly-traded Santa Clara California-based flash-drive hardware and (only recently) software services provider files for bankruptcy after software providers cannibalized its product, two failed attempts to sell the company, and a failed attempt to secure DIP financing. The objective of the filing is a "value-maximizing sale" of the assets: hey, its three strikes and you're out, not two. 
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware
  • Capital Structure: $10mm '17 5% RCF (Silicon Valley Bank - terminated as of petition date), $120mm '19 4.25% convertible notes (Wilmington Trust)
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP (Deryck Palmer, David Forsh, Cecily Dumas) & (local) Bayard PA (Scott Cousins, Justin Alberto, Gregory Flasser)
    • Financial Advisor & Investment Banker: Houlihan Lokey [(Andrew Turnbull, Ryan Sandahl, Randall Tatman, Angus Schaller, Brendan Wolf, Derek Kuns)
    • Claims Agent: Prime Clerk LLC (*click on company name for docket)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Ad Hoc Group of Convertible Noteholders (Jefferies Group LLC, Nokota Management LP, Pine River Capital Management LP, Silverback Asset Management LLC, Soros Fund Management LLC)
      • Legal: Weil (Gary Holtzer, David Griffiths)
    • Wilmington Trust
      • Legal: Brown Rudnick LLP (Daniel Saval) & (local) Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Steven Kortanek)
    • Unsecured Creditors' Committee
      • Legal: Cooley LLP (Lauren Reichardt, Robert Winning, Jay Indyke, Eric Haber, Michael Klein) & (local) Elliott Greenleaf PC (Eric Sutty, Rafael Zahralddin-Aravena)
      • Financial Advisor: The DAK Group (Sheon Karol, Ari Fuchs, Claudia Levine)

Updated 3/21/17