Tiny Novalar will close shop with a perfect development record

The tiny San Diego biotech Novalar never set the industry on fire with buzz about its therapy that quickly returns sensation to the mouths of drooling dental patients. But it won an FDA approval for its work back in 2008, a boast that many bigger companies in the industry could never make. And now that it's sold its only product, Novalar is going out of business on a high note.

France's Septodont bought OraVerse for an undisclosed sum earlier in the week. And CEO Donna Janson tells the San Diego Union-Tribune that its 12 employees will now be let go as the company winds down operations. "We really thought the most lucrative return for our investors was to sell (OraVerse) to an international player who was already in the (dental) space," she said.

Novalar, the brainchild of Domain Associates' Eckard Weber, was founded a decade ago. Novalar had been selling the treatment in six regions of the U.S. as it tested OraVerse's market potential. Presumably Septodont has much bigger plans in mind.

- here's the story from the San Diego Union-Tribune