Fresh Tracks wants CEO to lead dissolution 

BOULDER — Embattled drug maker Fresh Tracks Therapeutics Inc. (OTC: FRTX) has asked a Delaware judge to allow its CEO to serve as the company’s custodian as it attempts to dissolve its business operations. 

If the Delaware Court of Chancery approves Fresh Tracks’ petition, Albert Marchio, the company’s CEO, chief financial officer and sole director, would be tasked with filing a certificate of dissolution for Fresh Tracks with the Delaware Secretary of State, winding down Fresh Tracks’ affairs by marshaling assets and paying liabilities, reserving cash from claims that have yet to arise but could in the next 10 years, distributing remaining funds to shareholders and paying consultants and claimants.

A date has not been set by the court to hear the petition. 

Fresh Tracks, which laid off nearly all its workers late last year during a cost-cutting spree, was delisted by the Nasdaq exchange in December 2023. 

The drug developer rebranded from Brickell Biotech in 2022 and sold off rights to its excessive-sweating drug to Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The company, which has seen its stock price tank in recent years, then began exploring the possibility of a merger or other strategic options for boosting shareholder value, elevated a new CEO and paused research and development.

The company contacted about 125 potential merger partners and investors, resulting in four “unsuccessful attempts” to consummate a deal, due, Fresh Tracks said, to “the potential acquirer’s inability to secure its own necessary financing and/or inability to offer adequate value.”

Management estimated late last year that dissolution would result in $5 million to $7 million returned to shareholders.