No­body but Deer­field wants Melin­ta; No­var­tis finds a new drug dis­cov­ery part­ner

→ Melin­ta Ther­a­peu­tics — one of the myr­i­ad of com­pa­nies that crashed and burned in the ‘bro­ken’ mar­ket for an­tibi­otics — will be of­fi­cial­ly swal­lowed by Deer­field. Melin­ta had filed for chap­ter 11 bank­rupt­cy late last year and had signed a deal to turn over con­trol to Deer­field in ex­change for the $140 mil­lion of se­nior debt it holds in the com­pa­ny. The plan was to com­plete a re­or­ga­ni­za­tion in bank­rupt­cy, and wait for bet­ter of­fers — but on Wednes­day Melin­ta said the auc­tion sched­uled for March 6 would not pro­ceed, as no par­ty sub­mit­ted a high­er and bet­ter bid than Deer­field.

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