The biotechnology sector faced a spike in bankruptcy filings in the U.S. in 2023 and 2024 after over a dozen years of fewer than 10 filings annually.
Bankuptcy filings topped out with 14 filings in 2023, the most since 2010, when 14 companies also filed. In 2024, 13 biotech companies filed for bankruptcy with six companies reorganizing and seven liquidating and going out of business.
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Both years were unusually high, as the highest amount of bankruptcy filings since the high-water mark of 14 in 2010 was only seven filings in 2019.
Related: Major healthcare provider files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Significant bankruptcy filings in 2024 included Acorda Therapeutics, the Pearl River, N.Y., maker of Parkinson’s disease and multiple-sclerosis therapies, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 1 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Next, Gamida Cell Inc., which develops stem cell treatments for several blood cancers and other disorders that include leukemia and lymphoma, on May 13, 2024, filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Bankruptcy filings got rolling in 2025 with a couple of significant filings. Omega Therapeutics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 10, 2025, with a restructuring support agreement that called for its parent affiliate Pioneering Medicines 08-B to be the stalking-horse bidder with a credit bid of $9.92 million in debtor-in-possession financing, a roll-up of about $1.5 million in prepetition debt, assumed liabilities and cure amounts.
Molecular Templates files Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize.
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Molecular Templates hands company to lender
And now, biotechnology company Molecular Templates Inc., which develops cancer treatment drugs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with plans to hand its assets over to its secured lender as part of a restructuring support agreement.
Related: Popular beer brand files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The Austin, Texas-based healthcare company listed $2.49 million in assets and $29.4 million in debts in its petition filed on April 20, 2025, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
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The debtor’s largest unsecured creditors include CBRE, owed over $377,000; Fairjourney Biologics SA, owed over $285,000; and Cedars Sinai Medical Center, owed over $263,000.
Molecular Templates reached a restructuring support agreement with its prepetition lender K2 Health Ventures, which calls for the debtor to hand 100% of new common equity in the reorganized company to K2 in a debt-for-equity transaction and for the lender to provide $12 million in debtor-in-possession financing.
The DIP will include $3 million in new money and a roll up $9 million in prepetition debt.
Molecular Templates is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which was founded in 2001 to develop biological therapies to treat cancer and other diseases.
Company was never profitable
The company has operated at a loss since its inception, according to CEO Craig Jalbert. Despite efforts to raise additional capital, market and sell the company over the last two years, the company was unable to close a transaction or develop a viable product to remain a going concern.
The company in March 2023 began seeking strategic alternatives and marketed its assets for sale but could not find a buyer to close a transaction. In June 2024, one of the company’s significant partners, Bristol Myers Squibb terminated a multi-year preclinical collaboration that led to a board of directors decision to dissolve the company at the end of 2024.
Bristol Myers Squibb in February 2021 committed up to $1.3 billion, with $70 million paid upfront, for Molecular Templates to develop “engineered toxic bodies” to treat cancer and diseases.
Related: Popular dining chain owner files bankruptcy, closes iconic eatery
