Melinta's Bankruptcy Underlines Problems with the Antibiotics Market

Melinta Therapeutics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2019, with Deerfield Management taking control of the company in exchange for the $140 million loan it had provided the company. Melinta focuses on antibiotics, which despite an increasing need for new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacteria, is a difficult market space. Last year two other antibiotics companies, Aradigm and Achaogen, filed for bankruptcy, even after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Achaogen’s antibiotic in June 2018.