Well...after all these years the goats finally paid off...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703373404576147483489656732

O my darling, O my darling, O my darling Clementine, you are lost and gone forever, O my darling goats Gymzyme, Thanks Geoffrey.

"Medicinal product sales, which remain the main source of revenue world- wide, went up by 2.9%. The sales of GTC BIOTHERAPEUTICS Inc. in the USA reached €5.1M, mainly from the sales of ATryn®."

Not that it matters, but the above was taken from LFB's 2011 Annual Statement.

Hope all are well. You, too. Vinnie.

[Deleted]

Adios, GTCB.

I missed the point. I guess like everything else associated with GTCB, I needed to be smacked in the face by seeing the human actually falling off the cliff.

The goat is doing fine. What do you think he's watching go off the precipice? I had thought of a Wiley Coyote-type graphic, or the goat thinking "adeau," but went for a cleaner look.

Well, then, another difficult and painful investing lesson learned, thank you very much indeed.

Baaaa.

Actually, the goats will do just fine. The picture should be of GTCB investors falling off the cliff while the goats munch contentedly on some grass oblivious to the falling humans.

End of the line

Maybe payback to get the job as CEO.

Geoffrey Cox effectuated a multi-million dollar stock buy back from GTC's former parent Genzyme, coincidentally also Cox's former employer, when the company was burning cash, had no revenue, and no approved drugs!

Is this a reasonable action for a small biotech company that isn't a scam?!

And he and Henri Termeer got away with it!

Then Cox and the board of directors rode the gtcb gravy train into the ground.

Was it malfeasance, stupidity, laziness, bad luck, marching orders?

Well-spoken obituary

I share your sentiments, suited for a funeral for this company. Let's learn from the experience and move on.

Urche

I really should say, GTC's business plan was poor. A company that has a drug that has already passed the FDA is not going to want to create a whole new process that has to pass the FDA again just to produce drugs a little cheaper. The big expense and time killer is to get something pass the FDA.

cox played his hand well, retired at 65, got way to much money for running a company that was never going to succeed, why fold shop as long as you are getting paid to do an easy job? Why lay off friends when it only means the company exists for a while longer? Maybe, Maybe in 5-10 years GTCB will have a product that pays for the salaries of the company, but maybe not.

I am quite sure cox and management knew they were doomed for many years, Genzyme didn't want the company, high profile investors sold out long ago, insiders never stepped up and bought a lot of shares.

The science was interesting but ultimately mediocre, always a hard thing to discern for investors who are not employed by the industry. I have seen the same sort of situation in high tech companies, the technology to an outsider looks very promising.

Did you see how much the cash burn has been reduced? It would have meant something if they did it 2 years ago.

In hindsight, I think Coxe's biggest mistake was trying to develop drugs in house without proper funding or any revenue stream rather than just being an outsource cooperating with larger entities. I think he really thought Atryn would save the company (as did most longs). When it became clear that revenues were not forthcoming.... that was the time to abandon ship.

biopearl,

The truth is I don't recall much of our exchanges, rather the what sticks to me is my failure to sell at a higher price than the $2 I did for 60% of my shares. I think that we were both frustrated by what we saw as the squandering of a potentially great company by truly clueless management. Rather than beating a dead horse and now blaming GTCB management, we both take full responsibility for our decisions, and ultimately, our losses. That way we learned valuable lesson to be really skeptical by management who can't seem to ever deliver but always has a good excuse. Best of luck to you as well.

Vinny

Vin, I agree, its not quite that they lied but I don't feel they represented the true state of the company (as I suspected but was too trusting to do much about it) to us and now its just going under. You and I had some unpleasant exchanges in the past, but in truth GTCB was thrown under the bus, regardless. An expensive lesson in several areas. Best wishes in your future endeavors. Regards, bp

The board should hold out for $0.31 a share.

biopearl,

Yes I did. It just serves as a lesson on how absolute shit management can destroy just about anything. A painful lesson that won't be forgotten.

Hello Vincent, See the tire tracks yet? bp

R.I.P gtcb

goodbye

oldberkeley,

Once again you find the cartoon that exactly fits the situation. Too bad it couldn't be a pretty picture.
Once the LFB takeout is complete, a picture of a dead goat being eaten by a vulture would be fitting.

The whole thing is really too bad; not being a scientist I couldn't analyze things to the extent that many of our posters could, but it always seemed to me that the technology itself was sound and promising.

I have an old friend who runs a small manufacturing company in western Massachusetts. I remember a few years ago we were talking about why some small companies make it and some don't. He said that very often the owners are convinced that they have a great product; very often they are correct, indeed they do. The owners then assume that just because they have a great product the world will beat a path to their door.

Nope, it doesn't quite work that way. It takes sound leadership, aggressive marketing, realistic contingency planning to get through the inevitable tough times, and of course a good bit of luck.

GTC just fell short on all these ingredients.

Best of luck to you.

ob... I'm going to miss your cartoons which were usually spot on. Maybe you could have strewn a few shareholder bodies around the dead goat or another cartoon of shareholders taking a bath. In any event, after first buying into the goats in 1995, my remaining token shares will cease to exist. That really is closure. Out...

I see there's a PIPE that occurs before they cash out the small shareholders. Since this is the case, should one assume that one would receive less than the current price or more as a sweetener?

I guess what I'm asking is there a short-term opportunity here to get a decent percentage return in a short period of time?

GTCB
R.I.P.

The coup de grâce has finally arrived:

http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/904973/000110465910048874/a10-15187_2ex11.htm

great numbers today.
There awaits a bright future for this company .
good luck everyone

It is kind of sad that GTCB's PR spin this as good news.
Soon, we will hear a take under deal.

Lundbeck dumps ATryn: #msg-52343321.

Basically I agree with you Dew, but I don't see why LFB has to have any minority shareholders.

Soon or later GTCB will again run out of cash, LFB is their ownly source of cash, and yet another dilutive offering will occur.

Sooner or later LFB will get over 90% just in the natural course of events. It's just a matter of time, and during this time GTCB keeps developing their technology, so from LFB point of view it isn't wasted time.

IMO once LFB went over 20% the die was cast.

pharm,

Thanks for taking the time to come up with some numbers. I guess it depends on how many of the 59 people actually work on the farm. I would like to see management come up with some cash burn numbers since the work force has been reduced by almost 2/3.

The total workforce at GTCB has since april13 been. reduced from 154 to 59 people. I wonder how they can manage the total farm-operations

Ding dong, the witch is dead.

Only years and millions of dollars of needless squandered capital later.

John Wayne Bobbitt has nothing on GTCB -- they've got no Cox either.

Hope all are well.

MTB

Dew, I agree completely. Cox was a horrible CEO. The guy needed to cut costs for a long time but did nothing. The guy needed to secure up front money, but failed to do so. Nice to see that LFB is taking more control over management. The new CEO, William Heiden, is letting go of 30 people in headquarters, and 20 on the farm. He also stated one big goal was to increase the financial performance of ATRYN, which shouldn't be too hard since it has been a disaster.

It will be important to hear exactly how much GTCB will have reduced cash burn by the restructuring, and that we will finally hear about one of the long promised GTCB partnerships being formed and generating UPFRONT cash for a change. Hopefully, it is isn't too little, too late, but at least I am feeling the first little wisps of optimism for the future of GTCB. Of course, unless GTCB inks a partnership with up front cash, this feeling won't last very long.

Geoff Cox is finally ousted: #msg-51345211.

It’s a shame the BoD didn’t get rid of Cox about three years ago, when it started to become clear that he lacked the rudimentary business skills one needs to build a profitable company.

p.s. In a well-deserved award, Cox was voted the worst biotech CEO of all time in a survey on the Biotech Values board in late 2008 (#msg-34163297).

Here is something that may have been missed by some.

GTC Enters into ATryn(R) Registration License with Bio Sidus Argentina

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gtc-enters-into-atrynr-registration-license-with-bio-sidus-argentina-2010-04-13?reflink=MW_news_stmp

New Zealand's GM cattle under fire

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100327/full/news.2010.155.html

Scientists in New Zealand whose work with genetically modified (GM) animals had been threatened by a High Court ruling have been given a reprieve. But they say that the case highlights the legislative challenges their research faces.

The case involves a series of applications made by the state-owned science company AgResearch to the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), a government regulatory agency. The 2008 submissions seek permission to use and develop up to 18 different species of GM livestock in a contained outdoor facility, without specifying which genes may be modified, as well as a broad range of related laboratory research. The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act, under which ERMA was established, designates such applications to be of "significant public interest" and thus gives interested parties an opportunity to play a role in the decision-making process.

The campaigning group GE Free New Zealand, based in Nelson, challenged ERMA's right to assess the applications, arguing in court that "the applications are too generic to constitute proper applications under HSNO". The case went to the High Court, with ERMA as the first defendant and AgResearch the second. Justice Clifford of the High Court agreed with the plaintiff and ruled on 5 June 2009 that ERMA must cease processing the four applications.

But AgResearch appealed the High Court ruling, and on 24 March 2010, New Zealand's Court of Appeal lifted the ban, pointing out that merely accepting and processing the applications did not give them a seal of approval.

"ERMA is pleased to have clarity around the law relating to our receipt of applications," says Geoff Ridley, ERMA's acting general manager of its new organisms group.

Stifling development
AgResearch currently holds two approvals to develop and test GM cattle in containment. The first was obtained 11 years ago. Both applications have been amended and extended a number of times as the work has progressed, but they are now at the point in which new approvals are required to enable further development and breeding of the cattle.

AgResearch had hoped to transfer their herd of 100 GM cows to the 4 new linked applications, but the legal action and subsequent delays forced them to make more specific interim applications.

The original approvals were amended on 11 March to allow existing GM cattle to escape a threatened cull. A further application that will enable AgResearch to resume breeding the cows is under consideration, with a decision expected from ERMA in mid-April.

Despite the recent Court of Appeal ruling in AgResearch's favour, Barry Scott, head of the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and former ERMA board member, says these sorts of legal challenges can stifle business development. Jimmy Suttie, science and technology general manager for AgResearch's applied biotechnologies group, acknowledges this possibility. "The impact is twofold: it makes NZ companies themselves reluctant to invest and, because of the way the international media may view the actions of GE Free NZ, it can suggest that the anti-GM attitude in New Zealand is more extreme than it really is," he says.

New Zealand researchers say they need to partner with international commercial companies to obtain venture capital and market access. AgResearch currently has two biopharmaceutical partners: Pharming NV in Leiden, the Netherlands, and GTC Biotherapeutics in Framingham, Massachusetts, who produced ATryn, the first FDA-approved biopharmaceutical (a human anticoagulant protein) from a transgenic animal.

Lingering problem
Although ERMA will now resume processing the four AgResearch applications, issues brought up during the legal battle remain relevant. Much of the argument centred on the generic nature of the documents and whether they contain enough information to evaluate risks and benefits. Indeed, some opponents of genetic modification believe AgResearch is testing the system to see how broad their applications can be.

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But Scott argues that such broadly-worded applications are valid. "Many of the risks and controls associated with genetically modifying animals will be the same," he says. "The process is costly and you don't want to be forever going back to ERMA."

This may not be the end of the story. GE Free New Zealand says that it might take the matter to the country's Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the country.

goodmorningvietnam,

GTCB management has ZERO credibility and has demonstrated a complete lack of business acumen. They needed to cut costs at least 2 years ago, but didn't begin doing so until LFB took significant majority control. To my dismay, they kept Cox on board. GTCB has talked about partnerships for a long time and expanding ATYRN markets with CABG or sepsis trials. However, their HORRENDOUS track record means that no price rise will happen until after deals are signed, sealed and delivered with up front money given, and trials actually start.

The company is effectively sold already.

They paid down some debt which effected their bottom line.
Everyone scurries and sells just because they dropped from the NASDAQ. They will be sorry in 3 months.

I don't get why GTCB didn't just sell themselves. Were there no opportunities or was it managment hubris?

or was it jesse livermore?

or is that just the way it's done in biotech? live and learn

The 7 minutes 48 seconds of Q&A on Friday’s CC was the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard:

http://www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=156161

The only questioner on the CC was Doug Rogers of Sonora Investment Management, who has previously posted on this board. Doug sounded surprisingly clueless for a 5%+ shareholder.

Inasmuch as I’ve been out of this stock for almost 1.5 years, my interest in GTC is from the standpoint of potential competition in the coagulant/anticoagulant arena. My overall assessment at this time is that GTC’s programs represent a competitive threat to nobody.

GTCB off to OTC trading !

GTC Biotherapeutics Inc., a developer of drug candidates using genetic materials derived from animals, said it is unlikely to regain compliance to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market and that it has taken steps to trade in the over-the-counter market as it advances its research.

The Framingham, Mass.-based company said it does not expect to regain compliance with the Nasdaq’s minimum market capitalization of $35 million by its March 16 deadline.

GTC said it already has taken steps to file share-listing paperwork with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which operates the electronic exchange known as the Over the Counter Bulletin Board.

The company made the disclosure as part of its fourth-quarter earnings announcement. GTC said it booked $1.2 million in revenue and a net loss of $933,000 in the three-month period ended Jan. 3. Both numbers were improvements over the $1 million in revenue and $6.2 million net loss booked in the year-earlier quarter.

GTC had $3.8 million in cash and marketable securities as of Jan. 3, compared with $11.6 million a year earlier. The company said it has sufficient cash resources to support its operations to the end of the second quarter, “exclusive of future cash proceeds from potential new partnering agreements.”

Dew,

It only becomes competition AFTER GTCB gets factor VIIa into clinical trials. We will see how many screw ups and delays GTCB has in store before actually getting into trials. Your post refers to yet another company that can get significant cash for producing their drugs, but somehow GTCB can't seem to be able to figure out how to do it.

Serious competition for the hemophilia market:

#msg-45759144

Dew,

Thanks for the information that I can still post without a premium membership. However, I can't send private emails, which isn't a big deal.