Hologic seeks Makena rights in KV bankruptcy fight 

Hologic seeks Makena rights in KV bankruptcy fight

Sep 24, 2012 (Menafn - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Hologic Inc. is asking the bankruptcy court to give the Mass. drug firm the rights to premature-birth drug Makena that Hologic had sold to drugmaker KV Pharmaceutical, according to Bloomberg News.

The bankruptcy court in Manhattan will hear the motion on Thursday, with a final hearing on Nov. 13, Bloomberg reported today. If approved, the request would derail KV's plans for emerging from bankruptcy since the company's main business is marketing that drug.

Bridgeton-based KV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 4, the same day that KV failed to make a 95 million payment it owed to Hologic, which developed the drug Makena.

KV neither invented nor patented Makena, but agreed to pay Hologic nearly 200 million for "orphan drug" status -- and seven years of market exclusivity -- for the rights to sell the branded drug. The FDA granted the approval to Hologic, which presented the application and argued for the drug based on medical research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. KV helped finance the application for approval.

Though Hologic has a lien on the drug, KV argues that the marketing rights is worth more than remaining debt owed to the Mass. company, according to Bloomberg.

When it filed for bankruptcy, KV listed the company's assets as 237 million and its debts as 728 million

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