Savient pharmaceuticals

Savient pharmaceuticals was a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical company. Its lead product, pegloticase, is a biologic drug for treatment resistant chronic gout, which it has marketed since 2011. It has also marketed oxandrolone since 1995.

Savient was incorporated in 1980 as Bio-Technology General Corp and changed its name in 2003.[1]

Savient later focused on commercializing pegloticase in the United States and completing the development and seeking regulatory approval in the European Union. The company also sells branded and generic versions of oxandrolone, a drug used to promote weight gain following involuntary weight loss. Savient does not own or operate its own manufacturing facilities and uses third-party contract manufacturers under the supervision of company personnel. Its CEO from February 2011 until February 2012 was John H. Johnson, who like most of his executive staff, formerly worked at Imclone Systems.[2]

Savient overestimated the market for the drug and raised the price several times in order to remain viable, but the company declared bankruptcy in 2013, having sold only around $35 million of the drug which was less than it had spent on marketing alone.[3] the drug was selling at $5,390 per vial—around $30,000 for a three-month course of treatment, at the time Savient went under.[3] Crealta is a vehicle through which the private equity firm GTCR buys distressed pharmaceutical companies, tries to improve their profitability, and then resells them.[3] Crealta increased the price of the drug to $14,000 per vial by 2015, and was able to sell the asset to Horizon Pharma for $510M USD that year.[3]