Some board members wanted to liquidate the business back then, paying stockholders about 80 cents a share from the assets remaining, Rudnic said. He pressed the board to roll the dice on one more clinical trial.
"It took every bit of persuasive talent I had," he said. In the end, the board members agreed to try one last time, raising funds by laying off 38 percent of their staff.
The gamble paid off. The last-ditch trial succeeded, and in January the Food and Drug Administration gave MiddleBrook approval to market the potentially lucrative drug, called Moxatag.
But the board of directors was already looking at "strategic alternatives" to move the company to a new level. For MiddleBrook, selling became a compelling alternative because executives believed they needed a huge sales force to market their antibiotic - in effect, enough salespeople to get Moxatag pens and coffee mugs in the hands of hundreds of thousands of prescribing doctors.
But now, the board has decided to forge ahead as an independent company, with EGI footing the bill.
"We are very pleased to have completed this agreement with Equity Group, and believe it provides MiddleBrook with both the financial resources and the operational management expertise to make our FDA-approved Moxatag product a commercial success," R. Gordon Douglas, MiddleBrook's chairman, said in a statement. "With our strategic review now concluded, we look forward to focusing the company's initiatives on successfully executing its operating plan."
Douglas also thanked Rudnic for his "leadership, vision and proven entrepreneurial achievements." Rudnic will continue to serve the company as a consultant after the transaction closes. MiddleBrook's spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
Today, MiddleBrook is a thinner slice of its former self. It has about 30 employees, down from about 130 at its peak. Rounds of layoffs followed the cancellation of its big-pharma partnership and the failure of the two pivotal trials.
Its labs have been emptied - other projects shelved while it waited for FDA review of its drug and then for the sale of the company. White coats, embossed with "Advancis," the company's former name, are hung in neat rows on pegs. Each piece of lab equipment is labeled with an "out of service" sticker.
It's unknown what challenges Rudnic, who has been active in one of the state's biotechnology trade groups, will tackle next or whether he's satisfied with EGI's investment.
"This company will never be worth zero," Rudnic said earlier this year. "It's got products that have value. I'm proud of that. I'm on the patents. I've raised the money. We've turned the product into a reality."
tricia.bishop@baltsun.com
