Aksys, a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based maker of home-based kidney-dialysis machines, has pulled the plug. The 16-year-old company's board of directors last month voted to shut down operations after trying for months to sell its assets or attract outside financing. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Aksys said it owes $23.4 million on a loan from its majority shareholder, Durus Life Sciences Master Fund.
Durus, a hedge fund, had told Aksys it would not continue to fund the company without additional financing from a third party. Aksys lost $24.5 million during the first nine months of 2006, according to its last quarterly financial statement.
Durus founder Scott Sacane last month was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he manipulated the shares of Aksys and another small biotechnology company, Esperion Therapeutics. A phone message left at Aksys' headquarters Tuesday was not immediately returned. Its Web site was inactive. A number for Durus Capital Management in Norwalk, Conn., is disconnected. -- by Crain’s Chicago Business
