Savient pharmaceuticals

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

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

Savient later focused on commercializing Krystexxa in the United States and completing the development and seeking regulatory approval in the European Union.^[2] 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.^[3] Its CEO from February 2011 until February 2012 was John H. Johnson, who like most of his executive staff, formerly worked at Imclone Systems.^[4]

In November 2011, Savient and Jim Belushi collaborated on an educational campaign to raise awareness about refractory chronic gout (RCG), for which Krystexxa is being marketed.^[5][6]

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.^[7]{ 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.^[7] Crealta is a vehicle through which the private equity firm GTCR buys distressed pharmaceutical companies, tries to improve their profitability, and then resells them.^[7] 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.^[7]

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