Bain in PA: Tengion

Introduction:

This post is part of a series in an attempt to understand the influence and involvement of Bain Capital (and venture capital / private equity generally) in Pennsylvania. 

To do this I searched through newspapers and business databases to locate the names of Pennsylvania  companies that had some connection to Bain, then looked for general information on those firms.  Chain stores do not count unless the company is headquartered in Pennsylvania.

I have made a concerted effort to confirm information found in the press but sometimes this was not possible.   A similar effort was made to construct a search strategy in such a way that published corrections would also be found.  That being said, I am working primarily with self-reported corporate information and published media, not from original research.  Citations are provided so interested parties can reviews the research for themselves, and they are encouraged to do so.  This is not intended to be exhaustive research, though the intent was to be thorough. 

Tengion



Tengion was founded in 2003.  On the corporate website (www.tengion.com), the business is described as "a clinical-stage regenerativemedicine company."
Prior to 2006 the company raised $39 million inprivate equity funding.  In 2006 it had60 employees and received $50 million from private equity investors, from,among others, Bain Capital and Quaker BioVentures.  In part the money would be used to develop amanufacturing plant in East Norriton (Loyd 6/27/09).  A year later the company had 80 employees andraised an additional $33 million in private equity funding (Loyd10/16/07).  In 2008 the company broughtin another $21 million from seven venture capital firms, including Bain Capital(DiStefano, 11/20/08).
In late 2009 Tengion announced its intention tolaunch and initial public offering (IPO). The previous private equity / venture capital money had been raised “byselling convertible preferred stock” (Brubaker 12/25/09).  In Sept 2008 the company had 68 employees,down from a high of 100.  Researchsetbacks accounted for layoffs. (Armstrong, 12,28/09).  The IPO raised $30 million, with a lower thanexpected starting price of $5.00 / share (“Tengion,” 4/10/10).  
The stock price went down over time and in February,2011, Tengion announced that it would shortly run out of money if it did notreceive more funding.  Medtronics wasamong those coming to the rescue.  Thecompany “received $31.4 million from private investors in return for 11 millionshares of common stock and warrants to purchase 10.5 million more.”  The price was $2.88 a share (Maykuth,3/02/11).  Later that year the NASDAQthreatened to de-list the company because of a consistently low, less than$1.00 / share price (Sell, 10/07/11). The company appealed this.  InNovember, 2011 another 30 employees were laid off and only a handful were leftin Pennsylvania (Armstrong 11/16/2011). In January, 2012 the company formally moved its corporate headquartersfrom Pennsylvania to North Carolina where its research facilities are. 
As of this writing the stock is trading at $2.00 /share, after a reverse stock split in May. According to an August, 2012 financial report on the firm’s website, thecompany currently has a product in clinical trials and another in preliminarystudies.  [Update:  On Sept. 4^th NASDAQ notifiedTengion that it’s stock could no longer be traded on NASDAQ.  Instead it will begin trading Tengion stockon OTCQB tier of the OTC Marketplace.]
A report in the Mergent database lists those withsignificant ownership and Bain was not among them.  I don’t know when, how, or if, Bain stoppedhaving a relationship with the company.
Sources:
Armstrong, Mike, “PhillyInc: A localinnovator is downsizing again,” Philadelphia Inquirer,  Nov 16, 
2011 

Armstrong, “Remember initial public offerings?” Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec 28, 2009 
Brubacker, Harold, “Montco biotech firm to go public,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec 25, 2009
DiStefano, Joseph, “New local money for biomedical innovator,”  Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 20, 2008
Loyd, Linda “Developer of alternate organs gets $50 million,”  Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27, 2006
Loyd, Linda, “Tengion raises $33 million in private equity,”  Philadelphia Inquirer Oct 16, 2007
Maykuth, Andrew, “Tengion toget $31.4M in financing," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2, 2011
Sell, David, “Tengion's shares face delisting,”  PhiladelphiaInquirer, October 7, 2011
“Tengion shares begin trading,” Philadelpia Inquirer, April10, 2010

 



       

From website: Tengion, a clinical-stage regenerativemedicine company, is focused on developing its Organ Regeneration Platform™ toharness the intrinsic regenerative pathways of the body to regenerate a rangeof native-like organs and tissues with the goal of delaying or eliminating theneed for chronic disease therapies, organ transplantation, and theadministration of anti-rejection medications. An initial clinical trial isongoing for the Company's most advanced product candidate, the Neo-UrinaryConduit™, an autologous implant that is intended to catalyze regeneration ofnative-like urinary tissue for bladder cancer patients requiring a urinarydiversion following bladder removal. The Company's lead preclinical candidateis the Neo-Kidney Augment™, which is designed to prevent or delay dialysiskidney transplantation by increasing renal function in patients with advancedchronic kidney disease. Tengion has worldwide rights to its product candidates.