Orchestra Therapeutics: The 2009 Biotech Graveyard

Company: Orchestra Therapeutics
Based: San Diego, CA

What went wrong: Orchestra was co-founded by polio vaccine creator Jonas Salk in 1986. In the early days its most promising program was AIDS vaccine Remune, making the company the darling of Wall Street. Remune was ultimately unsuccessful and Orchestra set its sites on a multiple sclerosis treatment called NeuroVax. But after years of trying to develop drugs without getting anything to the market, economics eventually caught up with the company last year as it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, discontinued NeuroVax development and laid off all its employees.