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A multi-disciplinary team led by Restructuring and Insolvency partner Stewart Perry, Life Sciences partner Alison Dennis and Equity Capital Markets partner Jonathan Brooks has advised the joint administrators of Redx Pharma plc (Jason Baker and Miles Needham of FRP Advisory LLP), on the disposal of certain assets, including patents in the Redx BTK program, for the sum of US$40 million.
The sale by the listed company, which entered administration in May after failing to repay a secured loan, will pave the way for the company to continue as a going concern after the administration, and return to trading, with all creditors being paid in full. The company will then be in a position to resume the development of its other drug programs. The transaction has been described as the first of its kind on the AIM market.
The disposal of assets in insolvency situations often presents diverse legal and practical challenges to office-holders, but in this case those challenges were exacerbated by the fact that the company's shares are listed on the AIM market, meaning that the administrators had to navigate an additional regulatory regime, on top of the highly specialised nature of the pharmaceutical assets being disposed of. The intricacies of the transaction were such the team made urgent Court applications on behalf of the client pursuant to the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Insolvency Rules 2016 during the course of negotiations, in order to avoid the publication of commercially sensitive information.
Restructuring and Insolvency partner Stewart Perry commented: "Fieldfisher were pleased to be able to assist our clients at FRP Advisory in offering the necessary specialised insolvency, securities and life sciences skills in relation to this complex and unprecedented transaction within a very short timetable, enabling all creditors to be paid in full, the company to be rescued and the eventual restoration of its AIM listing."