Pernix Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (PTX)

Pernix Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. was a specialty pharmaceutical company that marketed branded prescription drugs, mainly in neurology, pain and sleep. Its most important products were Treximet, a combination tablet for migraine, Zohydro ER, an extended-release hydrocodone painkiller built on abuse-deterrent BeadTek technology, and Silenor, a low-dose doxepin tablet for insomnia. The company relied on its own sales force to promote these medicines to physicians and was headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, after earlier years based in Louisiana and Texas.

The business traces its roots to a Louisiana pediatric drug company founded in 1996. It became public in 2010 through a reverse merger with Golf Trust of America, a shell listed on the NYSE American market, and later moved its common stock to Nasdaq under the symbol PTX. In its early public years Pernix sold cough, cold and allergy products and generics, then shifted toward larger branded drugs with a growth strategy built on acquisitions.

That strategy accelerated in 2013 and 2014. Pernix bought Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, gaining Silenor, acquired Cypress Pharmaceutical, and purchased U.S. rights to Treximet from GlaxoSmithKline. In 2015 it acquired Zohydro ER from Zogenix. The deals were financed largely with debt, including convertible notes and term loans. Generic competition for Treximet, pricing pressure and tighter controls on opioid prescribing then cut into revenue, and the company repeatedly reported losses while carrying a heavy debt load.

Pernix tried cost cuts, a reverse stock split and debt exchanges, but it could not restore its finances. On February 18, 2019, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, planning to sell its assets through a court-supervised auction. Nasdaq staff notified the company that its stock no longer qualified for listing, and Pernix chose not to appeal, so the decision became final on March 5, 2019, and trading on Nasdaq was suspended.

Nasdaq filed to remove the shares formally, and the delisting took effect at the opening of trading on April 12, 2019. The stock briefly traded over the counter under the symbol PTXTQ. In the bankruptcy, substantially all of Pernix's assets, including Treximet, Zohydro ER and Silenor, were sold to Currax Holdings LLC, a company formed by affiliates of Highbridge Capital Management, for about $75.6 million plus assumed liabilities. Common shareholders received little or nothing, and the company was wound down.