W.L. Gore picks up bankrupt NMT Medical’s IP at auction

W. L. Gore & Associates picked up NMT Medical Inc. (PINK:NMTI) intellectual property and assets at auction as the company faces bankruptcy and attempts to repay creditors.

Gore’s purchase includes data related to NMT’s Closure I trial, a study of its Starflex cardiac implant.

The Starflex implant won FDA pre-market approval in April 2009 and the Boston-based company began analyzing its Closure trial data a year later.

The troubles for NMT began June 17, 2010, when it reported that the flagship device failed to meet the primary endpoint of the trial. The news sent NMT’s stock down 79 percent that day, a far cry from an all-time high of $24.56.

Trying to regroup, NMT said it would "tightly manage expenses, preserve cash, evaluate financing alternatives and adjust our operating plan accordingly," as it waited for the final results of the Closure I trial to be completed in November 2010.

In August 2010, the company’s poor stock performance drew a first de-listing warning from the NASDAQ exchange. Later that month, former CEO Frank Martin and chairman James Mahoney stepped down, with COO Richard Davis taking the helm as chairman, president and CEO.

NASDAQ finally ran out of patience with NMT and moved to de-list the company’s stock in February 2011. At the time, NMTI stock was trading around 38 cents per share.

The company chose not to appeal the NASDAQ ruling, according to a filing with the federal Securities & Exchange Commission.

By April, NMT announced that it didn’t have enough money to pay auditors and wouldn’t file an annual report with the SEC. Later that month, the company began liquidating its assets in an attempt to repay creditors.

NMT entered into an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, a legal alternative to formal bankruptcy that transfers all of NMT’s assets to a designated party, which can then liquidate assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors.

The company’s intellectual property went up for auction in May.

Gore’s purchase, the details of which were not disclosed, did not include any of NMT’s liabilities or regulatory obligations.

"We made the decision to acquire these assets in the spirit of collaboration and in the interest of advancing scientific and medical understanding," Gore’s medical division stroke business associate Stuart Broyles said in a press release.