Drug Seller Aegerion Files for Bankruptcy as Debt, Fines Pile Up

Rare-disease drug seller Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is bankrupt and plans to sell itself, unable to cope with a pile of maturing debt, falling revenue and tens of millions of dollars in fines and fees.

The Novelion Therapeutics Inc. subsidiary has been dogged by federal investigations that resulted in about $40 million in penalties, according to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Manhattan late May 20. The company has debt obligations of $414 million due this year, according to a declaration by John R. Castellano, a managing director at AlixPartners who’s serving as Aegerion’s chief restructuring officer.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company ...