Cumbre Pharmaceuticals dissolves - Dallas Business Journal:

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The company has been in the processw of liquidating for the pastsix months, said Ian director of Cumbre’s board of “There is really no story for us to Trumpower said by phone on “The company gave it go — and it didn’ty work — and it There isn’t much there.” The companh dissolved a week ago, Trumpowet said. “Its assets have been distributed to itssecurefd creditors, and the company essentiallyg doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.
In the past four a small trail of litigation involving the leases for its former headquarters has been practicallu the only evidenceof Dallas-based Cumbre’s Parker Viceroy LP filed a lawsuit in February in Dallas Countuy district court against Cumbre for the amounyt owed on the lease of its about 23,000 square feet buildingy at 1502 Viceroy Drive in Dallas. “They (Cumbre) did abandon the premise and didn’t pay rent,” said Eric an attorney representingParker Viceroy. “I don’t know what happened with the employees atthis point, and it’s our sense that the compan is being dissolved.
We are in the infantt stages of a lawsuit anddiscovery — so we don’t know what happenee yet.” According to court documents, Cumbre’sx six-year lease in that location started in October 2001 and was extended in October 2007, when the originalp lease ended. Cumbre signed onto a three-year extension from Novembefr 2007to Oct. 31, 2010. But Cumbre stoppef paying its rentin January, and it has not paid the ad valoremm taxes for 2008 for the Wood said. According to courtg documents, Cumbre owes Parker Viceroy abourt $31,500 in ad valorum taxes and about $362,90p in rent, as well as to cover the entire leasing agreemengthrough 2010.
Base monthly rent of the facilitywas $18,14r per month. Cumbre’s attorney, Jeffrey Kitner, declined to comment. Kitner is with the law firm LLP. Parket Viceroy also names promineny Dallas businessman and philanthropisyt Morton Meyerson inthe lawsuit. Meyerson was a guarantod of the company’s lease through Oct. 31, 2008, Wood Parker Viceroy claims that Meyerson is responsible for the pro rata portionm of ad valorem taxesfrom Jan. 1, to Oct. 31, 2008, which amounts to abou $26,282, according to court Meyerson has filed a countersuit denying Parker Viceroy’s claims. Meyersohn and his attorneys could not be reacheddfor comment.
Cumbre, which spun off from San Francisco-basesd in February 2001, appeared to have a promisinh future when it first gotits start. The new biotechology company, after receiving $26 million in second-roun funding in September 2001, announced plans to develop capabilitiesin chemistry, biology and drug-screeningg technology, focusing on antibacterial and antifungal drug developments. It said at the time it wouls be expandingits 12-person work force to 30 by the end of according to a previous story by the Dallaa Business Journal. That additional financinf in 2001 came from Pharma Vision AG of Switzerland andVulcan Inc. of Seattle.
Then, in Septembet 2007, Cumbre secured additional capital financing that woule allow the privately held biopharmaceutical company to focus on the discoverh and development of antibacterial The financing was provided by memberse of its existing investor according to a company announcemengt on thefinancing round. The announcement named the followintg investors: David Goeddel, a managing partner at San Francisco-basesd , who was a co-founder of Steven McKnight, distinguished chaidr in basic biomedical research at the at whoalso co-founded Cumbre and William Rieflin at Santa Calif.-based Xenoport Inc.
, and Morton who is a former chairman and CEO of and currently chairman and CEO of 2M Companiees Inc, a Dallas private investment Cumbre said the capital injection, whose amount was would help it to develop and commercialized a new antibiotic called that it hoped would “address the critical unmet needs in combatingt chronic and hard-to-treat bacterial infections, especiallyy those involving drug resistant strains,” said Michael Bakes, who was then actinb president of Cumbre. Bakes coulfd not be reached for comment.
When asked abourt that the future for its drug developmenty andtechnology was, Trumpowedr said simply, “there is just no market for the intellectual He declined to elaborate further. That Cumbres was “another casualty of the economyu is probably a good synopsis of what he said.