It will be interesting to see who picks up the pieces left over from Alizyme going into administration on Friday.
The Granta Park-based biotech company looked earlier this month as if it had a knight in shining armour riding in to save the day, but serial biotech entrepreneur and investor Alan Goodman (pic) has been forced to throw in the towel.
He took over briefly as chairman in a last ditch effort to save the business, which had already warned it would not last without more funds by the end of next month.
At one time Alizyme was seen as a big rising star in the biotech firmament and over the biotech years more than £100m has gone into the company, only 15 months ago a further £10m was raised via a share placing.
Mr Goodman told the News earlier this month as he stepped into the chair:
"I love a challenge. I am looking to do my magic."
But even his magic wand couldn't knock away a surprise hit at the end of last week when US firm Prometheus Labs decided to file a complaint against Alizyme for breach of contract.
Mr Goodman pooh-poohs any breach and says he was in negotiations with Prometheus before the surprise complaint, which, he says, immediately made it impossible to raise more funds for Alizyme.
"It's like getting married and having filed for divorce two days beforehand," he said, referring to the complaint filing, which was actually logged on July 21.
"It would have cost £5m to defend and the company doesn't have £5m," he added. "It was a bolt from the blue.
Mr Goodman agreed that the door was now open to pick up Alizyme's assets cheaply and without any encumbrances such as breach of contract complaints.
"But there's a whole lot more pain to come and the sensible thing to do would have been to negotiate. I thought I could do it, but didn't manage to pull it off."
There are 10 people working for the company, which was founded in 1996 by Andrew Porter, a biotech financial analyst, and Tim McCarthy, who was chief financial officer, and until Mr Goodman took over as chairman and ceo earlier this month, chief executive.
In happier times the company was a winner in the London Stock Exchange TechMark Awards. Drugs have been under development to treat obesity and irritable bowel syndrome.
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