Targeted Genetics faces bankruptcy

Despite making job and pay cuts, gene therapy company Targeted Genetics announced it will close up shop if it can't raise additional capital. In a statement, the company said that its "short cash horizon and the progressive deterioration of the capital markets," along with its inability to raise more funds, have brought the biotech to the brink.

Xconomy profiles the company, which was founded in 1992 when the gene therapy field was hyped as a possible cure-all for many disease areas. But the high-flying field came crashing down in 1999 after a patient enrolled in a gene therapy trial died. The incident raised ethical questions and the FDA suspended gene therapy trials for a time. Targeted Genetics has faced its own challenges along the way: in 2007, study participant Jolee Mohr died during a clinical trial of one of the company's drugs, which once again spured concerns about gene therapy safety. It was later determined that Mohr died of conditions unrelated to the trial. Xconomy reports that the company has lost $322.7 million since its inception in 1992.

"Notwithstanding our considerable efforts to date, we have not succeeded in raising additional capital to support our ongoing operations," said B. G. Susan Robinson, the company's president and CEO. "If we are not successful in extending our cash horizon by the end of June 2009, we plan to begin the process of ceasing operations, seeking bankruptcy protection or otherwise winding up our business."

- here's Targeted Genetics' release
- read the Xconomy report for more

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