Failed biotech gives a rare peek inside the tough breaks — and tough choices — that led to its demise

SAN DIEGO — It was spring 2020, and Histogen, a small biotech with big ambitions to regenerate tissues throughout the body and turn a profit in the process, had just gone public. The company’s leadership believed they were poised for success — until everything slowly and irreversibly fell apart.

Three years later, Histogen no longer develops therapies. It has abandoned efforts to reverse baldness, replenish cartilage in achy knees, and quell infection and inflammation.

The company has no lab. It has no headquarters. It has just two employees, including a chief financial officer who also serves as secretary, CEO, and president. Histogen’s stock trades below $1 a share. And even that is coming to a close. On Thursday, the Nasdaq suspended trading of Histogen shares after determining that the company’s operations and assets are negligible, meaning the biotech is now officially a shell of its former self.

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