Introduction:
This post is part of a series in an attempt to understand the influence and
involvement of Bain Capital (and venture capital / private equity
generally) in Pennsylvania.
To do this I searched through newspapers and business databases to
locate the names of Pennsylvania companies that had some connection to
Bain, then looked for general information on those firms. Chain stores
do not count unless the company is headquartered in Pennsylvania.
I have made a concerted effort to confirm information found in the press
but sometimes this was not possible. A similar effort was made to
construct a search strategy in such a way that published corrections
would also be found. That being said, I am working primarily with
self-reported corporate information and published media, not from
original research. Citations are provided so interested parties can
reviews the research for themselves, and they are encouraged to do so.
This is not intended to be exhaustive research, though the intent was to
be thorough.
Tengion
Tengion was founded in 2003. On the corporate website (www.tengion.com), the business is described as "a clinical-stage regenerative
medicine company."
Prior to 2006 the company raised $39 million in
private equity funding. In 2006 it had
60 employees and received $50 million from private equity investors, from,
among others, Bain Capital and Quaker BioVentures. In part the money would be used to develop a
manufacturing plant in East Norriton (Loyd 6/27/09). A year later the company had 80 employees and
raised an additional $33 million in private equity funding (Loyd
10/16/07). In 2008 the company brought
in another $21 million from seven venture capital firms, including Bain Capital
(DiStefano, 11/20/08).
In late 2009 Tengion announced its intention to
launch and initial public offering (IPO).
The previous private equity / venture capital money had been raised “by
selling convertible preferred stock” (Brubaker 12/25/09). In Sept 2008 the company had 68 employees,
down from a high of 100. Research
setbacks accounted for layoffs. (Armstrong, 12,28/09). The IPO raised $30 million, with a lower than
expected starting price of $5.00 / share (“Tengion,” 4/10/10).
The stock price went down over time and in February,
2011, Tengion announced that it would shortly run out of money if it did not
receive more funding. Medtronics was
among those coming to the rescue. The
company “received $31.4 million from private investors in return for 11 million
shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 10.5 million more.” The price was $2.88 a share (Maykuth,
3/02/11). Later that year the NASDAQ
threatened to de-list the company because of a consistently low, less than
$1.00 / share price (Sell, 10/07/11).
The company appealed this. In
November, 2011 another 30 employees were laid off and only a handful were left
in Pennsylvania (Armstrong 11/16/2011).
In January, 2012 the company formally moved its corporate headquarters
from Pennsylvania to North Carolina where its research facilities are.
As of this writing the stock is trading at $2.00 /
share, after a reverse stock split in May.
According to an August, 2012 financial report on the firm’s website, the
company currently has a product in clinical trials and another in preliminary
studies. [Update: On Sept. 4th NASDAQ notified
Tengion that it’s stock could no longer be traded on NASDAQ. Instead it will begin trading Tengion stock
on OTCQB tier of the OTC Marketplace.]
A report in the Mergent database lists those with
significant ownership and Bain was not among them. I don’t know when, how, or if, Bain stopped
having a relationship with the company.
Sources:
Armstrong, Mike, “PhillyInc: A local
innovator is downsizing again,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 16,
2011
Armstrong, “Remember initial public offerings?” Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec 28, 2009
Brubacker, Harold, “Montco biotech firm to go public,”
Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec 25, 2009
DiStefano, Joseph, “New local money for biomedical innovator,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 20, 2008
Loyd, Linda “Developer of alternate organs gets $50 million,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27, 2006
Loyd, Linda, “Tengion raises $33 million in private equity,” Philadelphia Inquirer Oct 16, 2007
Maykuth, Andrew, “Tengion to
get $31.4M in financing," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2, 2011
Sell, David, “Tengion's shares face delisting,” Philadelphia
Inquirer, October 7, 2011
“Tengion shares begin trading,” Philadelpia Inquirer, April
10, 2010
From website:
Tengion, a clinical-stage regenerative
medicine company, is focused on developing its Organ Regeneration Platform™ to
harness the intrinsic regenerative pathways of the body to regenerate a range
of native-like organs and tissues with the goal of delaying or eliminating the
need for chronic disease therapies, organ transplantation, and the
administration of anti-rejection medications. An initial clinical trial is
ongoing for the Company's most advanced product candidate, the Neo-Urinary
Conduit™, an autologous implant that is intended to catalyze regeneration of
native-like urinary tissue for bladder cancer patients requiring a urinary
diversion following bladder removal. The Company's lead preclinical candidate
is the Neo-Kidney Augment™, which is designed to prevent or delay dialysis
kidney transplantation by increasing renal function in patients with advanced
chronic kidney disease. Tengion has worldwide rights to its product candidates.
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